Electromechanical Actuator Engineer

Description

The electromechanical actuation systems are fundamental to the success of highly reusable, operable, and reliable space systems. As an Electromechanical Engineer at an early-stage start-up you will be responsible for designing, testing, and qualifying electro-mechanical actuators utilized for primary flight controls of the NOVA launch vehicle including Thrust Vector Control (TVC) and Engine Throttle Valve actuators.

You will work closely with the engines, fluids, avionics, and production teams to seek out state-of-the-art solutions to difficult problems, develop and own the company standards for actuator design, test them to their limits and iterate until making actuators one of our core competencies!

Responsibilities

• Designing, testing, and qualifying electro-mechanical actuators utilized for primary flight controls of the NOVA launch vehicle including Thrust Vector Control (TVC) and Engine Throttle Valve Servos
• Drive designs through concept, prototyping, testing, and production release life cycle
• Collaborating with valve and engines design teams to define sizing and performance requirements based on loads, rates and redundancy requirements
• Performing trade studies of actuation approaches for electromechanical mechanisms
• Selection and sizing of related components such as electric motors, controllers, position encoders, gears, ball screw assemblies, bearings (rollers, needle, tapered, etc.), and fasteners
• Collaborate with Electrical Design engineer to define, design, manufacture, and test control electronics
• Perform tolerance stackups, hand stress and kinematic calculations, motor and gear-train analysis, FEA, and CAD to ensure all hardware meets or exceeds system requirements
• Perform Design for Manufacturability (DFM) on your designs and work with manufacturing to refine
• Write and execute build, acceptance, qualification, and system test procedures
• Coordinate and manage supply chain
• Lead anomaly and failure investigations to identify root cause and resolution
• Basic fabrication, machining, wiring, general electronics, debugging, and parts chasing
• Support test and launch operations

Qualifications

• 3 years minimum experience designing, building, or testing electromechanical actuators or similar
• B.S. degree in Mechanical, Mechatronic, or Aerospace Engineering or equivalent

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated successful experience in electromechanical engineering product development
• Experience qualifying hardware for launch vehicle environments (SMC-S-016, MIL-STD-810)
• Extensive experience with CAD tools and configuration management (Siemens NX and Teamcenter preferred)
• Proficiency in GD&T, tolerance stackups, and material selection
• Hands on experience performing fabrication and assembly of components
• Experience with torque and force sensing technologies and instrumentation
• Experience with thermal analysis and design
• Familiarity with various electric motor, electric drive, and motion control technologies
• Basic first principles understanding of both mechanical and electrical common best practices for design
• Capable of writing software for test automation, data review, and design analysis
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Rigorous attention to detail
• Ability to lead
• Ability to follow

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision and basic life insurance
• 401(k) match
• Paid time off
• Flexible scheduling
• Equity

Compensation

Target Levels:

• Level 2 Range: $104,500 - $141,400
• Level 3 Range: $123,000 - $184,400
• Level 4 Range: $144,100 - $240,100

Our job posts are intentionally written to attract a wide variety of experience levels, and we make decisions about the right fit on a per-candidate basis. 

Your actual level and base salary will be decided based on your specific experience and skill level.