Senior Mechanical Engineer

About Cascade Space

Cascade Space is building ground-based physical infrastructure and software tools to support customer spacecraft exploring the moon and beyond. We recently raised a seed round and are excited to make our first mechanical engineering hire!

For our planned global network of ground stations, instead of building single large dishes, we are building arrays of dishes that are combined with a digital beamformer into one large aperture, comparable to a Deep Space Network 34 meter dish. Each array is ultimately a physical object with unique and challenging constraints — this is where you come in.

The Role

We are looking for a teammate who is excited to be a part of a tiny startup, ship real products made out of metal, and work on cool space stuff. You will have the opportunity to help build out the team, shape the cultural and engineering norms, and own a large part of our early success. We're building toward the future of spaceflight and human expansion into the solar system; wouldn't it be cool to help get that off the ground? Actually, the dish needs to stay bolted to the ground, that's an important part of your job.

While some of what makes the array possible is owned by dark wizards practicing arcane magic (RF and DSP engineers), the array is ultimately a physical object with unique and challenging constraints that must be met to enable the performance we need. This is where you come in.

You will own the mechanical integration of vendor-supplied dish systems with Cascade's in-house RF hardware — feeds, low-noise and high-power amplifiers, and associated electronics. You'll design mechanically stable, environmentally robust packaging for sensitive, ultra-low noise RF systems that need to survive harsh environmental conditions, and develop thermal management strategies.

You'll define the alignment strategies and tolerances that make or break array performance, and evaluate structural, thermal, and wind-loading effects on our pointing systems. You'll work closely with our RF and software teams to support calibration infrastructure, and develop the environmental, lifecycle, and field test plans that prove it all works long-term. And when it's time to stand up our first array, you'll be on-site helping deploy, install, and commission it.

This is not a job for an "armchair" mechanical engineer, you should be as comfortable turning a wrench and doing simple fab jobs as you are with a keyboard and mouse.

This is a full-time position and it is expected to be in-office four days per week with one day flexible for in-office or remote work. Our office, located in San Francisco (Soma), is three blocks from BART, filled with natural light and has a lovely roof deck.

Required Qualifications

• BS or MS in mechanical engineering (or equivalent experience)
• 4+ years of experience designing and deploying complex hardware systems
• Experience integrating electronics into outdoor or environmentally exposed systems
• Demonstrated experience with thermal management of sensitive or high-power electronics
• Experience designing precision mechanical assemblies where alignment and structural stability are critical
• Proficiency in 3D CAD and familiarity with structural (eg FEA) and/or thermal analysis tools
• Experience working directly with external vendors or manufacturers
• Willingness to travel for field deployment and testing
• Experience with environmental qualification and lifecycle testing
• Ability to lift 50lbs

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with antenna systems, RF hardware, radar, satellite communications, or radio astronomy systems
• Familiarity with grounding, lightning protection, and outdoor telecom infrastructure
• Experience supporting installation or commissioning of large field-deployed systems
• Forklift (telehandler) certified
• Experience in early-stage startups or small, high-ownership engineering teams

Compensation & Benefits

• $150k - $190k base salary + equity
• Unlimited PTO (minimum 15 days encouraged)
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance
• Lunch & dinner (optional) provided daily
• Competition winning coffee
• 401k

US Person Requirement

The day to day duties of this role do not involve ITAR or EAR materials, however many of our potential customers have designs and information that are restricted. Therefore, this role may be filled only by "U.S. Persons."

A "U.S. Person" is defined as a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident (green-card holder), or an individual who has been granted asylum or refugee status. Candidates who cannot satisfy this requirement unfortunately cannot be considered for employment at Cascade Space at this time.