Director of Vehicle Engineering

Our client is developing reusable return vehicles — systems that bring payloads home from orbit safely, precisely, and repeatedly. It's infrastructure the space economy has been missing. They're building it now, in Playa Vista, with a team that designs hardware, tests it, iterates on it, and watches it fly.

The Director of Vehicle Engineering is the responsible engineer for every vehicle in development — an orbital return vehicle and a precision aerial delivery system. They own the architecture, hold the technical decisions that no one else can make, and drive the program from design through flight.

This role requires someone who has owned a vehicle end to end — not contributed to one. The scope is broad by design, and the person who fills it will be expected to carry the technical authority that comes with it.

You'll report directly to the VP of Engineering and lead an integrated, multi-disciplinary vehicle team spanning Structures, Mechanisms, Heat Shields, Paragliders, Parachutes, Avionics, and Software. This is not a management role with occasional technical input — you are the systems authority. You hold the vehicle architecture, manage performance budgets across mass, power, thermal, and GNC, and own the integrity of the vehicle at every stage of development.

You're also the person who bridges R&D and production. Our client is transitioning from development into early manufacturing, and this Director will build the processes, tooling, and acceptance criteria that make fleet-scale production possible — before handing off to a dedicated Production Engineering team.

– Vehicle architecture, interfaces, and all performance budgets — mass, power, thermal, GNC. You set them, manage them, and own the resolution when they're under pressure.

– The full program lifecycle: from CDR through integration, TRR, CoFR, and flight operations.

– A multi-disciplinary team of engineering leads. You manage resource allocation, keep the critical path moving, and make the calls that protect the schedule without compromising the vehicle.

– Production readiness for upcoming initial missions — travelers, work instructions, acceptance test procedures, DFM reviews — and the transition plan to hand off to Production Engineering for fleet-scale manufacturing.

– The precision aerial delivery product line: design, validation, and flight performance to meet customer delivery accuracy requirements.

– The Master Test Plan, including environmental campaigns, flight tests, and anomaly resolution through MRB (Material Review Board) and FRACAS (Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System).

– The vehicle development schedule — risk identification, make/buy decisions, and configuration management.

– 12+ years of full-lifecycle spacecraft or flight vehicle development — design, build, and fly. All three phases, with direct personal ownership in each.

– Experience managing vehicle-level system budgets and making high-stakes technical trades — not subsystem trades, vehicle-level ones.

– A track record of leading cross-functional teams through critical design reviews and into flight campaigns, as the responsible engineer.

– Direct flight test heritage: range safety, anomaly investigation, and post-test disposition. You were accountable, not adjacent.

– Hands-on experience bridging R&D and manufacturing — setting up travelers, defining acceptance criteria, and designing for producibility.

– Bachelor's degree or higher in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Systems Engineering.

– Experience with re-entry vehicles, TPS (Thermal Protection System), or recovery systems — parachutes, paragliders, or parafoils.

– Experience transitioning a vehicle or system from prototype into LRIP (Low-Rate Initial Production).

– Background in precision aerial delivery or autonomous aircraft development.

– Active U.S. government security clearance.

This role will suit someone who is technically restless — who wants to own the hard problems, not review them. Our client is at a key inflection point of growth, which means the work is real, the decisions matter, and the person in this seat will shape how the engineering organization develops for years. The team is collaborative and mission-driven. The work is in-person, five days a week in Playa Vista — because building flight hardware together requires being in the same room. If you've been looking for a role where you can see the systems you design make it to orbit and back, this is it.

$200,000 – $250,000 (commensurate with experience)

Incentive Stock Options (ISOs)

Annual performance-based bonus — milestone-structured for this role

Medical, Dental, Vision · Short & Long-Term Disability · Life Insurance

401(k) with company match · PTO · Subsidized daily catered lunch

Playa Vista, CA — in-person, five days a week