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.
As a Life Support Systems Engineer at Vast, you will have the opportunity to utilize your knowledge, experience, and creativity to develop novel solutions at the cutting edge of space technology. Our team is developing the necessary hardware to maintain environmental and thermal control as well as support life onboard our artificial-gravity commercial space station. This is a challenging role, as it involves design, analysis, testing, and manufacturing of components that are absolutely critical to the safety of future astronauts and passengers.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Own the design and development of the environmental and thermal control systems for our artificial-gravity space station, from initial design trades to fully functional and validated system
- Iterate on manufacturing processes and development testing in a fast-paced environment
- Own the project delivery timeline from early design through production, launch, and orbit insertion
- Perform systems engineering tasks and fluid analyses
- Lead design reviews internally and externally with suppliers and customers
- Work with interdisciplinary stakeholders to ensure the component will integrate with the necessary avionics, software, and mission operations systems
- Make sure that all designs are manufacturable and reliable
- Bring technical excellence to everything you do
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in an engineering or science discipline
- 2+ years of experience working with fluid or environmental control systems or components
- 2+ years of hands-on hardware experience performing fabrication, assembly and/or testing
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's degree in an engineering discipline
- Proactive problem-solving skills such as failure analysis, root cause investigation, and design of experiment creation
- Ability to perform trade studies using first principles and engineering fundamentals to make clear recommendations even with partial information
- Experience with rotating machinery
- Experience with soft goods
- Experienced in NX
- Solid understanding and application of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) and tolerance stack-up analysis
- Experience with structural analysis methods (hand calcs, FEMAP, ANSYS) in order to optimize hardware to strength requirements as well as to evaluate for life and fracture
- Knowledge of metallic and fluid system manufacturing techniques, processes, equipment, and other processes such as machining, welding, brazing, tube bending, etcetera
- Able to work well in an integrated collaborative team environment, including frequent interactions with technicians, other engineers, and managers
- Highly self-motivated with strong organizational and written/oral communication skills – able to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment with the ongoing drive for continuous improvement in all aspects of work
Pay Range:
- Life Support Systems Engineer II: $110,000-$145,000
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 next-generation space stations to ensure continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches in 2026, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030.
With more than 1,000 employees at its Long Beach, California headquarters and over a billion dollars in private capital invested, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.
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