Senior Spacecraft Mechanical Engineer

The Senior Spacecraft Mechanical Engineer will lead the design, analysis, integration, and qualification of spacecraft structures, mechanisms, and flight hardware supporting advanced space missions.

Nova Solvers is an advanced engineering company developing spacecraft, avionics, sensing systems, autonomous technologies, and mission-critical solutions for commercial, civil, defense, and national security customers. Our team specializes in transforming complex challenges into innovative, high-performance systems that operate in the most demanding environments. We are passionate about building technologies that enable the next generation of space missions and defense capabilities.

Nova Solvers is seeking a Senior Spacecraft Mechanical Engineer to lead the design, development, integration, and qualification of spacecraft structures, mechanisms, payload packaging, and flight hardware. This role will support programs from early architecture trades through environmental qualification and mission deployment, working closely with electrical, systems, manufacturing, and mission engineering teams.

The ideal candidate combines strong analytical skills with hands‑on hardware development experience and has successfully delivered spacecraft or other high‑reliability aerospace systems through design, integration, and test.

• Lead mechanical design and development of spacecraft, payloads, avionics, and supporting hardware.
• Develop spacecraft structural architectures, packaging concepts, and mechanical layouts.
• Design primary and secondary spacecraft structures, brackets, panels, enclosures, and mounting systems.
• Perform structural, thermal, vibration, and dynamic analyses.
• Generate engineering drawings, CAD models, specifications, and design documentation.
• Support requirements development, system trades, and design reviews.
• Develop mass budgets, structural margins, and hardware performance assessments.
• Design for manufacturability, assembly, integration, and test.
• Support supplier selection, fabrication oversight, and manufacturing readiness activities.
• Develop and oversee qualification and acceptance test programs.
• Support environmental testing including vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, and thermal cycling.
• Perform failure investigations, root‑cause analysis, and corrective action implementation.
• Support spacecraft integration, launch preparation, and mission readiness activities.
• Coordinate with electrical, systems, software, manufacturing, and mission engineering teams.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to engineering process improvements.
• Support customer meetings, technical presentations, and proposal efforts.

We are looking for engineers who enjoy solving challenging mechanical problems and taking ownership of flight hardware. Successful candidates are highly collaborative, detail‑oriented, and capable of balancing analysis, design, manufacturing, and integration considerations to deliver mission‑ready systems.

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of spacecraft, satellite, aerospace, or defense hardware development experience.
• Experience supporting spacecraft programs through design, integration, environmental testing, and qualification.
• Proficiency with 3D CAD tools such as Solid Works, Creo, NX, or equivalent.
• Experience developing engineering drawings and applying GD&T principles.
• Familiarity with spacecraft structures, mechanisms, materials, and thermal control approaches.
• Experience supporting vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, and environmental testing campaigns.
• Strong understanding of aerospace manufacturing, assembly, and integration processes.
• Experience supporting hardware builds from concept through flight qualification.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast‑paced development environment.

• Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• Experience supporting GEO, LEO, cislunar, or deep‑space spacecraft programs.
• Familiarity with FEA tools such as…