About this role

As Director of Payload Systems Integration and Test, you will lead and grow a team of multidisciplinary engineers responsible for end-to-end mission success of a diverse portfolio of payloads, such as inertial, RF, and optical sensors and communication systems, as well as various types of pharmaceutical processing payloads. This role combines deep technical authority with team leadership, product definition, and customer delivery
responsibility. You will own the successful execution of multiple concurrent payload missions, delivering flight hardware that operates in orbit, survives hypersonic reentry, and returns to Earth - reliably and at scale.

Your team will serve as the technical bridge between each payload and the Varda vehicle, defining interfaces, planning and executing payload integration and test campaigns, coordinating in-orbit operations, and ensuring safe recovery of payload data and hardware. When payloads require special accommodations or vehicle modifications, your team will work across the vehicle engineering team to scope and implement these changes.

As Director, you will manage day-to-day execution across the team, in addition to hiring and headcount planning, new project scoping, and development of standard workflows and processes. You will also own and evolve the Varda Payload User Guide, defining standard interfaces and accommodations for hosted payloads, and developing a roadmap that expands the set of customers and use cases Varda can support while simultaneously growing mission cadence.
Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Payload Systems Integration & Test team, hiring and developing engineers across a range of experience levels
• Own integration and test for Varda's internal pharmaceutical processing payloads: test planning, functional and process verification, contamination control, and environmental qualification of fluidic and thermal flight hardware
• Partner closely with Payload & Mechanisms development engineers on pharma payload designs, staying engaged early enough in the design cycle to shape testability, and supporting the fast iteration these programs run on
• Take ambiguous customer mission objectives and determine how to meet them with the existing platform, or scope the non-recurring engineering needed and bring in the right development teams
• Own payload interface definition and requirements: ICDs, interface verification, and the standards documentation (payload user guide) that external customers and internal teams work from
• Plan and execute payload integration and test campaigns across both lines, including interface verification, functional testing, and environmental qualification (random vibration, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC, shock)
• Work with the production crew building and integrating payload hardware, and establish the cleanroom practices both lines depend on
• Coordinate with Vehicle Integration & Test as a sister function, sharing practices and infrastructure where it makes sense while maintaining distinct practices where appropriate
• Work with Mission Management to hit contract milestones and customer commitments, and serve as the technical face to customers through the mission lifecycle
• Support payload operations through flight, reentry, and recovery
• Establish and mature the processes, documentation, and cleanroom practices that let payload integration scale with mission cadence

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of spacecraft or aerospace hardware experience spanning integration, test, and mission execution
• Demonstrated ability to take poorly-defined technical problems and turn them into executable plans, interfaces, and requirements
• Hands-on experience planning and running environmental qualification campaigns on flight hardware
• Strong interface engineering background: ICDs, requirements flow-down, interface verification across organizational boundaries
• Experience leading engineers, including hiring and developing early-career talent
• Breadth across mechanical, thermal, fluidic, electrical, and software interfaces, with enough depth to be a credible technical backstop for the team
• Cleanroom operations and contamination control
• Customer-facing experience: scoping work, managing execution schedules, setting expectations, and negotiating technical commitments
• B.S. in a relevant engineering discipline

Preferred Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI security clearance, or eligibility to be granted one
• Test and verification experience with fluidic, thermal, or process hardware (pharmaceutical, biological, chemical, or life sciences payloads)
• Experience with payload accommodation on a hosted or rideshare platform
• Reentry, recovery, or landed-vehicle experience
• Defense or government program experience
• Experience standing up a new function or team
• M.S. in aerospace, mechanical, chemical, or systems engineering

Pay Range

• Salary range: $185,640 - $251,160 /per year
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

Benefits

Consider your benefits covered for launch. At Varda, we invest in benefits and perks that support your health, financial well-being, and life beyond work. Benefits vary by position, with packages designed specifically for our regular full-time employees and interns.

Regular Full-Time Positions:

Health & Wellness

• Flexible PTO policy + 12 paid holidays

• 100% company-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans for employees and dependents with FSA and employer-matched HSA options

• Voluntary accident, hospital, critical illness, and pet insurance

• $120/month wellness reimbursement for gym and fitness expenses

• 12 weeks of parental leave (with supplemental disability leave for CA mothers)

• Family building, pregnancy, parenting and menopause benefits via Maven Clinic

• Sponsored One Medical memberships for employees and their dependents

Financial & Retirement

• Substantial incentive equity in a fully funded space start-up

• 401(k) retirement plan with 6% employer match (immediately vested)

• $20/pay period cell phone reimbursement

• Relocation support for new hires, if needed

Workplace Experience & Perks

• Fully stocked kitchen with lunch provided daily and dinner provided twice weekly

• Company and team-bonding events, happy hours and mission-success celebrations

• Complimentary EV charging

Benefits for Internship Positions:

Health & Wellness

• Paid observed holidays.

• 100% company-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans for employees and dependents with FSA and employer-matched HSA options.

• $120/month wellness reimbursement for gym and fitness expenses.

• Sponsored One Medical memberships for employees and their dependents.

Financial

• $20/pay period cell phone reimbursement.

• Up to $4,000 gross up in relocation support, if eligible

• Up to $850 commute credit through Lyft or car rental reimbursement, if eligible.

Workplace Experience & Perks

• Fully stocked kitchen with lunch provided daily and dinner provided twice weekly

• Company and team-bonding events, happy hours and mission-success celebrations

• Complimentary EV charging