The hiring mix: test stands and machine shops
Raytheon selected Ursa Major propulsion for extended-range Army fires in 2024 (flight tests in 2025, qualification targeted for 2026), and the same test infrastructure that qualifies those missiles also qualifies engines for commercial launch. A propulsion company that flies hardware for the Army and the launch pad in the same quarter does not hire like a satellite shop. The workforce splits hard toward the test stand and the machine shop: propulsion engineers, manufacturing technicians, and the software people who make the two talk, while the rest of the org wraps around that core to keep the schedule from collapsing.
Zero G Talent's live board shows the shape. Recent postings span Vice President, Business Development and Vice President, Engineering at the top; a Chief Engineer, Hypersonic Missile and Interceptor owning a weapon-system propulsion line; a Principal DevOps Engineer building the toolchain that moves code from simulation to flight computer; and a Director, Sourcing & Procurement securing the supply chain for high-tempo engine production. A general application pipeline sits underneath, feeding roles not yet public. The board's salaried band runs $59k–$180k with a $135k median across 77 roles, a population weighted toward hands-on technical contributors, not corporate overhead.
A Staff GNC Analysis Engineer posting (remote-eligible but anchored to the Berthoud, Colorado campus) reveals the cross-functional reality: the role owns guidance, navigation, and control from sensor selection through hardware-in-the-loop validation, coordinating with vehicle design, structures, avionics, and test. Requirements call for classical control, state estimation, and flight-software implementation in MATLAB/Simulink, C/C++, or Python. U.S. person status and clearance eligibility are non-negotiable; the work touches Army hypersonics and launch vehicles alike.
That dual-use thread runs through the stated mission: "design and deliver propulsion and defense systems that solve the most urgent and critical national security demands." The hiring plan must feed both a missile program on a fixed government timeline and a commercial launch engine line that iterates on its own cadence. The same test infrastructure serves both.
Propulsion and manufacturing roles dominate headcount. GNC, avionics, and flight software exist to close the loop on engine control. Business development, procurement, and DevOps exist to keep hardware moving. Candidates who reach the interview stage are measured against that reality: can they deliver flight-worthy components under schedule pressure, not just publish papers about them.
Compensation: two tiers, one benchmark
Ursa Major centers compensation on a salary band of $59,000 to $180,000 with a $135,000 median across 77 salaried roles on the Zero G Talent board. That band captures the bulk of engineering, operations, and support positions, but not the executive tier. Recent postings — Zero G Talent's board data shows VP Business Development to $330,000 and VP Engineering to $300,000 — show vice-president and chief-engineer roles priced well above the ceiling, reflecting a two-tier market where propulsion-critical leadership commands a separate premium.
| Role (location) | Posted range (USD/year) |
|---|---|
| Vice President, Business Development (Berthoud, CO) | $280,000 – $330,000 |
| Vice President, Engineering (Berthoud, CO) | $240,000 – $300,000 |
| Director, Sourcing & Procurement (Berthoud, CO) | $187,000 – $234,000 |
| Chief Engineer, Hypersonic Missile and Interceptor (Berthoud, CO) | $175,000 – $230,000 |
| Principal DevOps Engineer (Berthoud, CO) | $175,000 – $215,000 |
The spread between the board median ($135,000) and the lowest VP posting ($240,000) is deliberate. Ursa Major builds liquid rocket engines for national-security and space-launch customers on tight schedules; the VP and chief-engineer roles own flight-hardware delivery risk that a senior individual contributor does not. The board band reflects the depth of the technical bench (propulsion, test, manufacturing, avionics) while the executive postings price the accountability for schedule and qualification gates.
Third-party aggregators tell a compatible story. Salary.com, reporting August 2026, puts the company-wide average at roughly $96,000 with a typical range of $84,000 to $108,000. That average is pulled down by non-exempt and early-career roles the board's salaried filter excludes. The same source lists a Chief Engineer near $252,000 and, according to Salary.com, a Vice President, Product Development near $267,000, figures that align with the board's VP Engineering and Chief Engineer postings. The aggregator's CEO figure of $742,000 — Salary.com's figures put it there — sits outside any hiring conversation; it reflects founder equity and board compensation, not a recruitable slot.
For candidates, the takeaway is straightforward. Individual-contributor and first-line-leadership roles (test engineers, manufacturing engineers, propulsion analysts, avionics hardware leads) cluster inside the $59,000–$180,000 band. Equity and benefits follow industry norms for a venture-backed propulsion company: option grants scaled to role level, medical, dental, vision, 401(k) match, and relocation assistance for Berthoud. The board's "General Application" posting carries no range; it functions as a pipeline capture for roles not yet public.
Inside the funnel: three rounds, high compression
Ursa Major runs a three-round funnel that Glassdoor reviewers map consistently: a recruiter phone screen, a technical one-on-one with the hiring manager, and an on-site panel interview.
The phone screen narrows the pool. A single posting can draw hundreds of applicants; the team brings only a fraction into the interview loop.
The second round sharpens the technical vetting. Glassdoor reviewers for analysis and engineering roles describe interviews heavy on deep dives into technical background, supplemented by school exam-style questions, with little time for the candidate's own questions. This aligns with a workforce that builds flight hardware on tight schedules: the hiring manager needs evidence the engineer can reason through propulsion or manufacturing problems in real time. One review noted the sessions felt unbalanced: interviewer-driven, intensive, and light on selling the role.
The on-site panel intensifies that pressure. Multiple interviewers evaluate systems thinking and practical problem-solving across disciplines relevant to liquid rocket engine development. Candidates who advance show they've operated in high-stakes, iterative test environments, the same environments where Ursa Major qualifies hardware for national security and space launch.
Three sites, one loop
Ursa Major operates across three Colorado locations, each serving a distinct function in the propulsion development loop. The Berthoud campus anchors the company. A former Ball Aerospace test facility in the Berthoud Tech Center, it houses design, manufacturing, and test infrastructure under one roof — a configuration Chief Operations Officer Nick Doucette has called "one of the only places in the world where rocket design, manufacturing and testing facilities are co-located." That co-location is not a convenience; it compresses the iteration cycle. The campus includes production floors for liquid engines and solid motor lines for missile applications, plus lab space where research technicians analyze propellant and liner materials.
Sixty miles northeast, the Briggsdale site serves a different purpose. A 400-acre expanse in Weld County, it provides the stand-off distance and environmental controls required for high-energy static fire campaigns. The Senior Test Engineer role explicitly calls out "remote test sites" where the team leads instrumentation, data acquisition, hazard assessments, and permitting for full-duration burns. Briggsdale is where flight hardware proves itself before it ships to a launch pad or a missile integrator. The scale is deliberate: the acreage absorbs acoustic and overpressure footprints that would constrain testing at Berthoud, and it allows parallel test campaigns without mutual interference.
Galeton hosts solid missile systems test infrastructure. The Staff Test Infrastructure & Controls Engineer for Solid Missile Systems splits time between Galeton and Berthoud, reflecting a workflow where solid motor development moves between the campus lab and the remote stand. This triad — Berthoud for integrated design and production, Briggsdale for liquid engine qualification, Galeton for solid motor test — maps directly to Ursa Major's two customer pipelines: space launch engines and hypersonic or missile propulsion. Each pipeline demands different test regimes, different safety perimeters, and different regulatory paths. Splitting them across sites keeps the cadence high on both.
The company's horizontal integration model — selling engines to launch providers and prime contractors rather than flying its own vehicles — makes this physical layout a competitive lever. A customer's engine moves from Berthoud's additive manufacturing cells through acceptance test at Briggsdale or Galeton without leaving Ursa Major's control. That control reduces schedule risk for the buyer and preserves margin for the seller. Doucette has described the Berthoud acquisition as cementing the company long-term in a location that "quickly became evident... was an awesome piece of property with incredible buildings and location." The town of Berthoud treats the campus as an anchor industrial tenant; Walt Elish, the town's business development manager, called Ursa Major "a great corporate citizen" and noted the site had been eyed for industrial development long before the company arrived.
Who thrives: craft over credential
Employee accounts and company records converge on a clear profile: people who treat propulsion development as a craft, not a credential. Ursa Major's workforce sits at roughly 330 people across three locations, with engineering making up the largest single function at 39 roles in the Berthoud office alone. Supply chain and procurement (8), program and project management (5), and a handful of corporate functions round out the headcount.
Mission orientation comes first. The work centers on flight‑class propulsion for space, hypersonics, and defense, giving many roles direct line‑of‑sight to national‑impact outcomes and real flight programs. On the company's Built In profile, Chaka, a master propulsion technician, wrote: "I usually compare working here to having a group of friends and we're all helping to restore a classic car in one of our buddies' garages.......except it's a freakin' rocket engine!" Connor, a manufacturing quality engineer, added: "I spend every day working on one of the most important problems that we face as a society: creating reliable and affordable methods of getting to space. I am also surrounded by the most amazing, passionate, and interesting people that I've ever met." That sense of tangible stakes — recent hot‑fires, flight activity, and defense contracts — filters for candidates who stay engaged when the schedule tightens and the test stand delivers unexpected data.
Hands‑on problem solving is the daily currency. The analogy captures what the hiring data implies: technicians and engineers who have turned wrenches, routed harnesses, or debugged a test sequence on hardware they helped build move faster here than those who have only simulated it. The careers page frames it as "your code, your designs, your hands‑on problem solving all push American‑made engines and aerospace and defense systems faster than ever before."
Collaboration isn't optional — it's structural. Colleagues are frequently portrayed as collaborative, caring, and willing to help, creating a close‑knit environment around test stands and production. Regular in‑person all‑hands and social events strengthen connection and cross‑functional problem‑solving. The OKR operational model and open‑door policy reinforce that priorities are visible and accessible.
Resilience appears explicitly in the culture description: "drives results while respecting others, and values resilience." That shows up in the iteration cadence. Test campaigns fail, schedules compress, and the hardware still has to ship. LinkedIn updates note that "speed and capability aren't just attributes of our systems, they define the way we build talent, too." Interns this past summer contributed directly to hypersonic flight systems and solid rocket motor production, with ownership granted before the ink on their degrees dried.
Ownership and learning velocity are linked. Roles commonly offer significant ownership early, with mentorship and cross‑training across design, testing, and manufacturing that accelerates learning. Internal promotions and recognition programs (monthly and yearly awards shared at all‑hands and on social channels) signal clear paths for advancement when people deliver results. The promotion policy is promote‑from‑within with customized development tracks.
Flexibility exists but doesn't dilute intensity. A remote work program and flexible schedules are offered, yet the density of in‑person test and production work means the people who thrive are usually on site when the hardware is hot. Glassdoor's 4.0‑out‑of‑5 rating across 41 reviews puts Ursa Major in line with the aerospace and defense average (3.6), suggesting the culture is competitive but not outlier‑harsh.
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