\*\*Your product will land on the Moon next year.\*\*
You’ll design, build, and test our 2027 Lunar Payload: the one that manufactures humanity’s first bricks on the Moon and deploys an inflatable habitat bladder. This is hands-on, full-lifecycle hardware engineering at a pace most aerospace companies can’t keep up with.
\*\*What you’ll do:\*\*
\* Own the mechanical design of the payload from concept through flight hardware.
\* Rapidly prototype, test, break things, and iterate.
\* Manage ICD with the lunar lander provider and be the primary point of contact.
\* Run and interpret structural/mechanism analysis to support design trades.
\*\*What we’re looking for:\*\*
\* Deep fluency with CAD and FEA tools: you think in 3D and can back it up with analysis.
\* Experience designing spaceflight hardware end-to-end (build, test, deploy).
\* Comfort with mechanisms: actuators, seals, deployables, pressure systems, end effectors, and more.
\* You’re using the latest AI tools every day (i.e., Opus 4.6/GPT 5.4, in appropriate harness) to massively increase your output and do things you otherwise couldn’t.
\* You’ve built flight hardware before.
If you want to maximize the probability that humanity becomes interplanetary in your lifetime, apply and share a portfolio of the technical work you’re most proud of.
Role details (from YC):
Compensation: $120K - $170K · 0.25% - 0.75%
Experience: 1+ years
Visa: US citizen/visa only
Skills: CAD Design