Staff Electric Propulsion Engineer

Vast is seeking a Staff Electric Propulsion Engineer to own EP system development and integration for a new constellation-ready spacecraft bus — a product line designed to scale to hundreds of spacecraft per year. 

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. 

About the role:

You’ll own the electric propulsion system for a constellation spacecraft bus — from thruster selection and qualification through flight integration and on-orbit performance. The EP system handles orbit raising, stationkeeping, and end-of-life deorbit for every satellite in the constellation. You’ll work alongside a small, experienced propulsion team that’s already making architecture decisions — this role adds depth and bandwidth as the program moves from trades into hardware.

The real challenge is production. This isn’t a one-off flight system — you’re building an EP subsystem that scales to hundreds of spacecraft per year. Every design decision needs to balance performance against manufacturability, testability, and cost at rate. You’ll also be the EP system’s interface to the rest of the bus — coordinating power draw with the power lead, thermal dissipation with the thermal lead, and disturbance torques with GNC.

Responsibilities: 

• Own EP thruster integration, acceptance testing, and qualification for the spacecraft bus
• Drive thruster selection and procurement — evaluate vendor options, manage performance requirements, oversee delivery
• Own power processing unit (PPU) requirements and development oversight — coordinate with the electronics lead on any in-house builds, or manage vendor PPU procurement and acceptance
• Design the propellant feed system — tanks, valves, pressure regulation, fill/drain provisions, and flow control
• Perform thruster performance characterization — thrust, Isp, efficiency mapping across the operating envelope
• Develop thruster lifetime models and predict degradation for mission-duration operation
• Own EP system integration with the spacecraft bus — mechanical mounting, power interfaces, thermal interfaces, and propellant routing
• Define EP power profiles and coordinate with the power lead to ensure the bus can support thruster operation across all modes
• Coordinate with thermal on thruster and PPU heat rejection — radiator sizing, thermal coatings, duty cycle constraints
• Coordinate with GNC on thrust vector, disturbance torques, and momentum impact during EP maneuvers
• Design orbit-raising, stationkeeping, and deorbit maneuver strategies — delta-V budgets, burn planning, constellation phasing
• Support constellation-scale EP operations — fleet maneuver planning, propellant management across the manifest
• Plan and execute EP subsystem environmental testing — vibration, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC
• Design for production — the EP system must be assembled, tested, and integrated at rate as the program scales to hundreds of spacecraft per year

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline
• 5+ years of electric propulsion development or integration experience
• Hall-effect thruster or ion engine experience — performance testing, plume characterization, lifetime assessment
• Propellant feed system design experience — tanks, valves, flow control for EP systems
• PPU integration experience — power conditioning, thruster control electronics, power interface definition
• EP system-level integration on a flight program — mechanical, electrical, thermal, and propellant interfaces
• Understanding of EP mission design — low-thrust trajectory optimization, orbit-raising strategies, stationkeeping budgets
• Experience with EP environmental qualification — vibe, TVAC, and EMI testing of propulsion hardware
• Comfortable working across subsystem boundaries — power, thermal, GNC, and structures all intersect with propulsion

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Able to obtain a security clearance
• Experience with high-power EP systems (5kW+ class thrusters)
• Multi-satellite EP system experience — scaling a propulsion design across a constellation build
• Thruster procurement and vendor management experience
• EP plume modeling and spacecraft interaction analysis (sputtering, contamination, charge exchange)
• Experience with xenon or krypton propellant systems
• Design-for-manufacturing experience — optimizing EP assemblies for producibility at rate
• On-orbit EP operations experience — commissioning, performance trending, anomaly investigation