Senior Spacecraft Mechanisms Engineer (NASA Moon Base Transportation)

Senior Spacecraft Mechanisms Engineer (NASA Moon Base Transportation)
Location: Kennedy Space Center - Merritt Island, Florida
Relocation Assistance: None available at this time
Remote/Telework: No - Full-time onsite position at Kennedy Space Center
Clearance Required: Must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident and successfully complete a U.S. government background investigation
Employment Type: Full-time, Salaried, Exempt
Work Schedule: Full-time
Compensation: $140,000-$155,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications
Travel: Travel as needed to other NASA centers, test locations, and commercial partner facilities

Position Summary
Aegis Aerospace, Inc. is seeking a Senior Spacecraft Mechanisms Engineer to support NASA's Transportation Engineering Support (TENS) effort and the Moon Base Transportation (MBT) Office at Kennedy Space Center.

This is an opportunity to contribute directly to the engineering behind NASA's effort to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. The Moon Base Transportation Office is helping address the end-to-end challenge of transporting spacecraft, payloads, logistics, infrastructure, and other critical elements from Earth to lunar destinations as NASA develops the transportation capabilities needed to build and sustain future lunar operations.

Those missions will depend on mechanical systems that must deploy, separate, latch, restrain, align, dock, release, open, and operate reliably after surviving demanding launch and spaceflight environments.

As a Senior Spacecraft Mechanisms Engineer, you will provide technical insight and independent engineering assessment of the mechanical systems and flight hardware that make those missions possible. Systems may include deployment mechanisms, actuators, latches, release and separation mechanisms, payload restraint systems, doors and hatches, docking or berthing interfaces, movable structures, and other spacecraft mechanisms.

The selected candidate will evaluate spacecraft mechanical systems throughout design, analysis, manufacturing, integration, qualification, testing, and operation. You will work alongside structures, loads and dynamics, thermal, electrical, mission design, materials, contamination, space environments, and other engineering specialists to assess whether spacecraft designs and verification evidence adequately support mission requirements.

This role combines independent technical assessment with targeted CAD modeling, fit checks, interface evaluations, mechanical analysis, and flight-hardware test insight where additional engineering work is needed to better understand technical performance and risk.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide independent technical insight and assessment of spacecraft mechanical systems, mechanisms, and associated flight hardware.
• Evaluate spacecraft-provider mechanical designs, analyses, verification approaches, test programs, manufacturing considerations, and operational concepts to identify technical risks and support design-maturity assessments.
• Assess spacecraft mechanical systems throughout design, analysis, manufacturing, integration, qualification, testing, and operation.
• Evaluate spacecraft mechanisms and assemblies including hinges, latches, deployment systems, actuators, release and separation mechanisms, payload restraint systems, doors, hatches, docking or berthing interfaces, movable structures, and mechanical interfaces.
• Evaluate mechanism performance considerations including kinematics, loads, clearances, alignment, tolerance stack-ups, margins, interfaces, reliability, lifecycle capability, and credible failure modes.
• Perform independent engineering assessments of complex spacecraft mechanical systems to evaluate design assumptions, margins, technical risks, and proposed design changes.
• Review engineering analyses, test plans, test results, drawings, CAD models, interface definitions, requirements, verification evidence, and other technical products for adequacy.
• Perform targeted CAD-based assessments, including fit checks, volume and envelope evaluations, interface assessments, center-of-mass evaluations, tolerance considerations, and other rapid mechanical evaluations needed to provide technical insight.
• Prepare, manipulate, defeature, and export CAD geometry at appropriate levels of fidelity to support structural, thermal, fluid, contamination, and other integrated engineering analyses.
• Coordinate with structures and loads-and-dynamics engineers to evaluate mechanism loads, structural response, interfaces, and applicable launch and operational environments.
• Evaluate mechanism performance across relevant environments, including launch loads, vibration, shock, thermal extremes, vacuum, contamination, and other mission conditions.
• Support and independently assess mechanism qualification, acceptance, deployment, lifecycle, and environmental testing, including evaluation of test objectives, configurations, instrumentation, acceptance criteria, results, and anomalies.
• Assess whether analysis and testing adequately demonstrate mechanism functionality, performance, margin, reliability, and readiness for the intended flight application.
• Support technical investigations involving mechanical anomalies, failed or unexpected deployments, interface issues, design changes, nonconformances, test discrepancies, and other emerging technical issues.
• Work with the integrated engineering team to evaluate multidisciplinary interactions and determine how mechanical-system designs or changes may affect overall spacecraft and mission performance.
• Participate in technical interchange meetings, design reviews, test readiness reviews, test-result reviews, working groups, and other engineering forums with NASA, commercial partners, and other technical organizations.
• Clearly communicate technical findings, assumptions, risks, margins, recommendations, and supporting rationale to NASA customers and multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Track multiple technical activities and independently prioritize work to support program needs and technical deadlines.
• Travel as needed to NASA centers, spacecraft-provider facilities, test facilities, and other program locations.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline from an accredited university.
• Ten (10) or more years of relevant mechanical or aerospace engineering experience.
• Demonstrated experience with mechanical systems, mechanisms, flight hardware, or complex mechanical assemblies.
• Strong understanding of mechanical engineering fundamentals, including loads, kinematics, mechanical interfaces, tolerance stack-ups, fasteners, bearings, actuators, structural behavior, and mechanical design practices.
• Experience evaluating mechanical designs, engineering analyses, drawings, CAD models, test results, and other technical products.
• Experience reviewing, manipulating, modifying, or developing mechanical models using Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or comparable CAD software.
• Experience supporting the development, integration, testing, or verification of complex aerospace hardware.
• Ability to independently evaluate complex engineering information, identify technical risks and questionable assumptions, and develop technically supported conclusions and recommendations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex mechanical issues to multidisciplinary engineering teams and program stakeholders.
• Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary environment and engage NASA, commercial partners, and other engineering organizations as technical peers.
• Ability to independently manage multiple technical tasks and priorities.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident Green Card Holder and successfully complete a U.S. government background investigation.
• Ability to work full-time onsite at Kennedy Space Center and travel as required.

Desired Qualifications

• Direct engineering experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, lunar landers, payloads, or other spaceflight hardware.
• Direct experience with spacecraft mechanisms including deployment mechanisms, latching systems, actuators, release or separation mechanisms, payload restraint or accommodation hardware, doors, hatches, docking or berthing interfaces, or other moving mechanical systems.
• Experience supporting the design, development, integration, qualification, acceptance testing, or operation of flight hardware.
• Experience evaluating mechanism kinematics, loads, lifecycle requirements, tolerance stack-ups, clearances, alignment, reliability, or failure modes.
• Knowledge of bearings, gears, motors, springs, dampers, lubrication, tribology, and other components commonly used in spacecraft mechanisms.
• Experience with mechanical environmental and functional testing, including vibration, shock, thermal-vacuum, deployment, lifecycle, qualification, or acceptance testing.
• Experience evaluating test configurations, instrumentation, performance criteria, anomalous results, and correlation between analytical predictions and hardware behavior.
• Experience with docking, berthing, payload accommodation, cargo handling, separation, or other spacecraft interface mechanisms.
• Proficiency with Siemens NX and/or SolidWorks.
• Familiarity with finite element analysis tools such as NASTRAN or comparable analysis software.
• Working knowledge of NASA design, analysis, requirements, verification, qualification, and flight-hardware development practices.
• Experience working in an engineering insight, independent assessment, customer technical oversight, or design-review capacity.
• Familiarity with applicable NASA mechanical, structural, mechanisms, and spacecraft design standards.
• Systems-engineering experience or demonstrated ability to evaluate mechanical hardware within a broader integrated spacecraft and transportation system.

Successful Candidate Profile

The strongest candidates will bring more than mechanical design experience. They will understand how spacecraft mechanisms behave as part of an integrated flight system and how design details, environmental exposure, manufacturing, integration, and testing combine to determine whether a mechanism will perform when the mission depends on it.

They will be comfortable moving between a CAD model, engineering analysis, drawing, interface definition, piece of flight hardware, and qualification or deployment test and understanding how each contributes to the technical evidence needed to support flight.

They will recognize how seemingly small details-clearances, alignment, preload, lubrication, tolerance stack-up, thermal distortion, launch loads, contamination, wear, or a single-point failure-can become mission-level risks.

Most importantly, they will know how to ask the right questions:
Will it fit? Will it survive? Will it move when commanded? Will it latch or release correctly? Will it continue to work after the environments and lifecycle it must experience? And does the available analysis and test evidence actually support that conclusion?

Successful candidates will be able to engage NASA, spacecraft-provider, launch-provider, and test engineers as technical peers while maintaining the independent engineering judgment necessary to provide objective, risk-informed technical assessments supporting TENS and Moon Base Transportation missions.