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 Director of Avionics Manufacturing, reporting to the Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, to support the development and manufacturing of artificial-gravity, human-rated space stations.
This will be a , exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
This position will lead a team that is responsible for building and testing avionics hardware and harnesses. This is a high impact position and will require scaling up the team in rapid fashion to support the Haven program.
Responsibilities:
- Lead a team of manufacturing engineers, technicians, and managers in planning, building, and testing Haven-1 avionics.
- Identify resource needs - equipment, headcount, and skills - required to deliver hardware to integration per the Haven program schedule.
- Continuously improve manufacturing processes and workflows to enhance productivity, efficiency, and quality. Implement lean manufacturing principles and other industry best practices to streamline operations and reduce waste.
- Drive the creation and implementation of required process specifications and manufacturing standards to manufacture avionics hardware for human spaceflight.
- Develop and implement key performance indicators to track manufacturing performance.
- Partner closely with Engineering and Demand Planning to plan and schedule development and flight hardware manufacturing.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineering, supply chain, quality and other manufacturing leaders, to ensure effective coordination and communication across departments.
- Assess the skills and capabilities of the team and identify areas for development and training to enhance performance & effectiveness.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, or Manufacturing Engineering.
- 10+ years of experience in aerospace or electronics manufacturing, with at least 5 years of leadership experience.
- Familiarity with testing of avionics hardware such as thermal, vibration, and functional tests.
- Demonstrated success with managing electro-mechanical production or harness manufacturing through rapid growth and rate increases.
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Experience with new production introduction and transitioning from development to production.
- Ability to set up production processes and systems to build aerospace products in an AS9100 quality system.
- Working knowledge of avionics/s[ace standards such as IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620, NASA-STD-8739.4, or SMC-S-016
- Direct working knowledge of environmental testing, including thermal, thermal vacuum, vibration, and shock testing.
- Lean-sigma certification and implementation experience.
- Familiarity with conformal coating, soldering, staking, and underfill processes.
Additional Requirements:
- Willing to work extended hours, and/or weekends as needed.
- Must be able to lift 25 lbs. unassisted.
Pay Range:
- Director, Avionics Manufacturing: $175,000 - $260,000
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. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
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What We Do
Vast is developing artificial gravity space stations to expand humanity across the solar system.
Vast’s mission is to enable large populations of humans to live and work in space, permanently.
Our solar system has the resources and room for humanity to thrive and expand without destroying Earth’s biosphere. Unlocking these resources requires in-space infrastructure and industry at an unprecedented scale.
We are building a world-class team to engineer the human experience in space.
Why Work With Us
We're developing artificial gravity space stations to expand humanity across the solar system in order to enable large populations to live and work in space. Not only is what we're working on groundbreaking, but the team prides itself on living by our values of respect, curiosity, action, and excellence making it a lot more fun to achieve our goal.
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