Senior Mechanical Engineer San Jose, CA

Muon seeks a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join our team. The ideal candidate can go deep on design and analysis but also has a "systems mindset" and will be a force multiplier collaborating with other disciplines to arrive at an elegant, well-balanced design. Being an early-stage startup with a small team, breadth is extremely important and we expect this person to dive into structural data, dynamics, thermal design, supplier management and everything else associated with the full lifecycle of an electromechanical product.

Due to the hands‑on nature of this role, on‑site work at our San Jose, CA location is required.

• Create, review, and refine spacecraft mechanical design with product structure in a modern CAD package (Solidworks)
• Ownership of delivery of mechanical vehicles and subsystems, acting on multidisciplinary designs between launch provider, analysts, avionics, program, thermal, optical, and RF engineers
• Find solutions and manage development of clean‑sheet mechanical / structures architectures through detailed design consistent with the risk posture, development velocity and deployment schedules at Muon
• Make economically sound choices for the company balancing the need to quickly demonstrate capability while understanding the path to scaled‑up constellations (e.g Make vs Buy).
• Create quick concepts that can be used to discuss and spur inspiration on the team in early phases of programs.
• Perform basic stress and dynamic analyses (hand calcs, simple FEM) to support and inform structures designs including joint design, basic stiffness analyses, etc.
• Contribute to maturing Muon’s mechanical engineering standards and culture
• Design basic test fixtures to support development and environmental testing
• Influence flight designs to ensure hardware is easy to both build and test

• 6+ years experience designing/building/testing flight hardware in the Space industry, or similar in Aero, Self Driving, etc.
• A desire to change the way the world understands and reacts to climate and environmental data
• B.S. or higher degree in Mechanical Engineering
• Some experience as an individual contributor structural/mechanical engineer
• Design of components and assemblies in CAD
• Understanding of drawings, GTOLs, and BOMs
• Dedication to drawing conclusions on the most important factors and data
• Excited to work in a fast‑paced environment with new opportunities each week

• Experience with solar arrays, SADAs, composite materials
• Experience designing and executing structural tests for spacecraft
• Large assembly management in Solidworks PDM, Duro PLM
• Google workspace;
  Sheets, Slides, Docs. Slack
• Mechanical management of a product or system
• Experience running structural analyses for spacecraft (FEMAP, ANSYS)
• Experience managing external vendors for part prototyping and development
• Software skills in one or more of Python, Matlab, C, C++
• Experience working on thermal management systems for spacecraft
• Shipped hardware designed for spacecraft, aircraft, automotive or similar environments

The salary range for this role is $181,000 - $202,000 plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.

Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end‑to‑end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission‑critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time‑to‑orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state‑of‑the‑art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration m climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.

At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full‑time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance,…