Senior Battery Mechanical Design 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 August 2025. 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 Senior Battery Mechanical Design Engineer, reporting to the Senior Director of Power & Systems, to support the development of Battery systems for our artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. In this role, you will design structures and mechanical packaging for batteries and cells, focusing on battery safety, development, and mechanical systems.

Responsibilities: 

• Own the design of enclosures, mounting solutions, and cell packaging for batteries on a large scale space station
• Develop an understanding of static and dynamic loads, vibrations, thermal and other environmental considerations to drive design decisions
• Perform mechanical design and analysis, develop manufacturing drawings, test plans, build procedures, and concept of operations and follow hardware through the entire design lifecycle
• Support electronics development and trade studies, and create interface definition, specification, and control documents
• Work with fabricators and battery technicians to improve designs, develop processes and resolve issues
• Own battery test campaigns including functional testing, cell screening, passive propagation resistance testing, environmental qualification (vibration, thermal vacuum), and integrated system-level validation
• Perform failure modes and effects analyses and drive reliability design and validation plans at the system level

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or physics
• 5+ years experience with CAD and FEA software packages
• 5+ years of experience designing and developing mechanical components or systems
• Experience interfacing with manufacturing and assembly for prototyping

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Experience working with battery systems or design of structures and components for a high-performance vehicle or spacecraft
• Experience with battery mechanical design for spaceflight environment, verifying workmanship and operability through environmental tests (random vibration, shock, thermal, TVAC, and thermal runaway testing)
• Prior experience in a fast-paced manufacturing setting
• Design work in recent versions of NX, Teamcenter
• Analysis work in recent versions of Ansys, FeMap/Nastran, Abaqus
• Experience with GD&T implementation and analysis (ASME Y14.5)
• Familiarity with NASA battery cell screening standards for human spaceflight, JSC-20793 
• Familiarity with spacecraft specifications such as SMC-S-016, NASA-STD-5001
• Familiarity with harness design per IPC-A-620 and/or NASA standards
• Experience with electrical schematic reviews and electrical schematic capture software (Altium or similar)
• Strong sense of accountability and integrity with excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to thrive at an early-stage startup where you will have the opportunity to help create and optimize key systems and processes