Payload Engineer II Verified today

About Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing.

The Role

As Payload Engineer II, you are the technical owner for the design, analysis, development, and qualification of payload segments and mechanical interfaces to spacecraft for the Alpha Launch Vehicle. You will provide technical leadership across the full lifecycle of payload hardware including fairings, attach fittings and adapters, working directly with spacecraft customers to translate mission requirements into flight-ready hardware.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and produce payload segment and spacecraft interface designs; create and manage hardware definition through CAD, drawings, and documentation.
• Perform and guide detailed analysis including structural margins, thermal effects, and tolerance stack-ups using FEA and classical hand calculations.
• Lead development, qualification, and acceptance testing of payload hardware at component, subassembly, and system levels to SMC-S016, AIAA S-114, GEVS and other industry standards.
• Hold mechanical interface control definition for spacecraft and support customer fit checks and integrations as the technical owner.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to ensure hardware is producible, inspectable, and flight-ready.
• Support build, integration, and acceptance activities, resolving fit, function, and performance issues.
• Provide technical mentorship to junior engineers and act as subject matter expert in customer and mission management meetings.
• Travel up to 20% as needed.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field.
• 3+ years of experience designing, analyzing, and qualifying hardware for aerospace applications or high-reliability systems.
• Demonstrated experience with flight-critical structures or mechanisms.
• Experience designing and testing for extreme environments including vibration, shock, and vacuum conditions.
• Demonstrated foundation of design with carbon fiber and metallic structures.
• Proficiency with FEA and classical hand calculations methods to evaluate strength, stiffness, buckling (Ansys, Femap, etc.).
• Solid understanding of loads and dynamics as they apply to primary structures.
• Experience supporting production builds, resolving nonconformances, and improving producibility.
• Experience defining qualification and acceptance test programs and interpreting test data.
• Proven ability to make sound, defensible engineering decisions under schedule and program constraints.

Desired Qualifications

• M.S. or PhD in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related discipline or 5+ years of experience designing, analyzing, and qualifying mechanical mechanisms for aerospace or high-reliability systems.
• Experience with launch vehicle or spacecraft programs from development through qualified flight.
• Experience in customer-facing technical roles.
• Experience driving hardware through a failed test to successful product.
• Familiarity with scripting or programming for analysis, automation, or data reduction.
• Hands-on experience working on final stage integration of spacecraft.
• Working knowledge of AIAA S-114, NASA 5017b, SMC-S016, NASA 5020, GEVS.

Requirements

To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations including ITAR, you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Benefits

Firefly offers generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short-term disability, and flexible PTO options.