Principal Systems Engineer

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in May 2026. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.

Vast is looking for a Principal Systems Engineer, reporting to the SVP of Engineering, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. 

Responsibilities: 

• Negotiate between business and technical stakeholders to establish program requirements. 
• Develop a requirements management system making requirements accessible and discoverable.
• Drive system level architecture trades to closure. 
• Develop and own the fault management strategy for the space station and subsystems. 
• Work with system disciplines to quantify system performance metrics and sensitivities to drive technical decisions using available modeling infrastructure. 
• Identify program level verification milestones in the form of analyses, demonstrations, and tests to ensure program success. 
• Support Technical Project Management to unblock technical teams, and drive progress.
• Lead RCCA’s and Design Reviews to improve design reliability and technical product.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or other comparable engineering discipline.
• Demonstrated ownership of a technical system or product for 10 years minimum. Examples can include experience within electrical, mechanical, software engineering, statistics, reliability, or test engineering. 
• Demonstrated experience as a system owner or technical project manager coordinating multiple technical stakeholders across multiple disciplines.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Recognized as a leader within the systems engineering discipline, with visibility within the aerospace industry. 
• 10 years of experience leading or managing large cross functional teams developing a product with complexity in operations and design. 
• Demonstrated experience improving or starting a culture of systems engineering, heavily emphasizing verification and validation through analysis and test with a test-like-you-fly mentality. 
• Track record of deploying products with successful space flight heritage. In addition, experience managing in-flight anomalies to resolution. 
• Experience in space mission operations for manned space flight programs.

Additional Requirements:

• Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones

Pay Range:

• Principal Systems Engineer: $200,000-$230,000

Salary Range: California$200,000—$230,000 USDCOMPENSATION AND BENEFITS   Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 10 days of vacation for non-exempt staff, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, One Medical membership, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks.We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees.

U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS

The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. n