Mechanical Design Engineer

The Company

Astra's mission is to improve life on Earth from space by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Astra delivered its first commercial payload into Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after being founded in 2016. By achieving monthly, weekly, then daily launches, we'll create the infrastructure services our customers need in space to build a healthier and more connected planet. If you're excited by a sense of possibility, the chance to innovate, and make a difference here on Earth, we think you should work here too.

The Team:

The valves team designs, tests, and continuously improves upon all valves on the rocket, which are necessary for each vehicle stage to deliver customer payloads into orbit. The team is comprised of highly talented engineers and technicians collaboratively working through the challenges of liquid propellant rocket development and manufacturing. 

All forms of valve development, qualification, and acceptance tests are conducted within our Alameda facility. 

Position Summary

As a mechanical design engineer on the valves team, you will be responsible for the detailed design of valves, mechanisms, high-pressure plumbing, and fluid systems/assemblies in support of current and future rocket vehicle and propulsion systems. Contribution to all phases of projects, from early proof of concept design through to fully qualified systems: reduce cost and complexity, improve system functionality, and ease of fabrication/assembly. Beyond mechanical design, you will also be responsible for analysis, material and vendor selection, and be an integral part of the development and qualification test efforts. All engineers work closely with technicians to assemble and disposition early builds. The creation of build instruction documentation and verification of requirements completes your responsibilities within the team. Ideal candidates possess a personal passion for mechanical and thermofluid systems and engineering as a whole.

The Opportunity:

As an engineer within the valves team, you will have a system-level understanding of how a rocket operates, and maintain efficient designs from start to finish as hardware iterations are phased in. Engineering contribution includes the specification, analysis, design, fabrication/procurement, assembly and test of components and subassemblies critical to the engines and stages. The ideal candidate possesses a broad range of engineering aptitude for structural, fluidic, and electromechanical systems.