Senior Mechanisms Engineer - Satellite Mechanisms

About Cowboy Space Corp:

Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity's most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.

Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.

Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.

Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father's work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.

This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation's team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

As a Mechanisms Engineer, you will own a critical spacecraft mechanism subsystem from concept through flight. Depending on your background and team priorities, your assignment will be hold-down and release mechanisms (HDRMs), solar array deployment and drive systems, deployable structures (antennas, booms, radiators), or thermal/radiator articulation mechanisms. This is a hands‑on role at the center of spacecraft hardware development. You will work closely with structures, thermal, power, avionics, and mission operations to design integrated systems, build hardware, and validate through test.

You'll be expected to move quickly, iterate often, and take full ownership of mechanisms that directly impact mission success.

• Own your mechanism subsystem from concept through design, analysis, test, and flight.

• Drive structural and kinematic design for minimum mass while meeting strength, stiffness, fatigue, and operational‑life requirements across launch, on‑orbit deployment, and mission‑life environments.

• Balance performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule in every design decision.

• Perform analysis — hand calculations, FEA, tolerance stack-ups, deployment dynamics — and…