Senior Battery Electromechanical Engineer

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 August 2025. 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 Senior Battery Electromechanical Engineer, reporting to the Senior VP of Engineering Projects, to support the development of the Avionics and Power systems for our artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Responsibilities:

End-to-end ownership of battery and battery management system specification, architecture, simulation, schematic capture, PCB design, mechanical packaging design, board-level bring-up and validation, environmental qualification (vibration, thermal vacuum), and integrated system-level validation

Design of circuits to implement functions such as battery voltage/current sensing, charge balancing, disconnect relays, galvanic isolation, and fault detection

Development of battery models for electronic simulation and system modeling and battery state-of-charge estimation algorithms

Perform failure modes and effects analyses and drive reliability design and validation plans at the system level

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering or similar

5+ years of experience in battery development

5+ years of experience interfacing with manufacturing and assembly for prototyping

Preferred Skills & Experience:

Ability to creatively solve problems and bring multiple disciplines together while assessing risk and making design and development decisions with incomplete data set

Experience working in collegiate project teams (e.g. Formula SAE, Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and/or professional experience Professional experience with instrumentation and data acquisition (e.g. SPICE, SQL, and/or National Instruments hardware)

Experience with software programming: Matlab, Python, C/C++, etc

Experience with vehicle and instrumentation buses such as Ethernet, CAN, SPI, and I2C, as well as serial I/O (RS232/422/485)

Experience with full-lifecycle product development

Experience with battery design for spaceflight environment, verifying workmanship and operability through environmental tests (random vibration, shock, thermal, TVAC, and thermal runaway testing)

Experience working with battery systems and electrical systems.

Experience with Siemens NX or similar modeling software, Altium, electrical design platforms, thermal analysis platforms, computational fluids dynamics (CFD) platforms, combustion analysis platforms

Experience with GD&T implementation and analysis (ASME Y14.5)

Strong sense of accountability and integrity with excellent written and verbal communication skills

Ability to thrive at an early-stage startup where you will have the opportunity to help create and optimize key systems and processes

Salary Range: California

$135,000—$170,000 USD

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 15 days of vacation for non-exempt staff, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, free catered meals and snacks and beverages, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, One Medical membership, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks.

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

Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.