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 Structural Dynamics Engineer, reporting to the Lead Structural Dynamics Engineer, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
The structural dynamics group is responsible for low and high-frequency load & environment predictions for all Vast space stations during ground transportation, ascent, and on-orbit operations. This role will be responsible for generating frequency-based design and test requirements in quasi-statics, random vibrations, shock, and acoustics. Candidates should have strong skills in frequency domain analysis, test planning, and high-speed data processing.
Responsibilities:
- Derive internal load and environment requirements from system level requirements
- Assist product groups with vibration and shock requirement tailoring and test verification
- Assess vendor hardware capabilities against in-house predictions
- Develop post-processing tools for dynamic analyses and tests
- Build, maintain, and correlate prediction models based on gathered test data
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor degree in Mechanical or Aerospace engineering
- 2-3 years of professional experience in loads and environment prediction
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Spacecraft and/or payload background with experience through the entire system lifecycle from concept, design, production, integration, test, launch, and operations
- Hands-on test experience in vibration labs
- Experience in SEA modeling and acoustic analysis
- Familiar with Femap/NASTRAN
- Ability to explain structural dynamic concepts to other engineering functions
- Working understanding of a design load cycle and how it relates to analysis and test
- Knowledge of spacecraft launch load environments and industry standard documents (SMC-S-016, GSFC-STD-7000A, MIL-STD-810G, etc.)
Additional Requirements:
- Ability to travel occasionally for out-of-house testing
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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