About the role
Muon seeks a Principal Mechanical Engineer to join our Mechanical Engineering team. This role focuses on leveraging deep space industry experience to optimize and mature our existing spacecraft designs while mentoring and developing our mechanical engineering team.
As a Principal Engineer, you will apply your extensive flight heritage to enhance Muon's current spacecraft architectures, driving improvements in performance, manufacturability, and reliability. You'll serve as a technical leader and trusted advisor across the organization, using your expertise to guide critical design decisions and establish best practices that scale with our growing constellation production.
The ideal candidate brings proven space hardware experience and a passion for developing others. You'll be a force multiplier\u2014someone who elevates the entire team through hands-on mentorship, rigorous design reviews, and the establishment of standards that capture lessons learned. You have a "systems mindset" and can balance optimization of existing designs with strategic thinking about long-term product evolution.
This is a Principal-level (L7) individual contributor role focused on technical leadership and mentorship, potentially including some people management.
Due to the hands-on nature of this role, it does require onsite work at our Mountain View and San Jose locations.
Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Design Optimization
Serve as a principal technical advisor and domain expert, applying extensive space industry experience to optimize and mature existing spacecraft mechanical designs
Lead architecture refinement efforts to improve performance, reduce mass, lower cost, and enhance manufacturability of current spacecraft platforms
Oversee creative research and innovation strategies; provide guidance on advanced technical issues to leadership; work to rationalize and standardize company-wide standards and principles
Use your flight heritage and lessons learned to identify design improvements and risk reduction opportunities across the spacecraft portfolio
Create roadmaps with 1+ year horizons that influence the future direction of Muon's products in alignment with business objectives and the evolving space industry
Mentorship & Team Development
Act as a force multiplier by providing strong, hands-on mentorship to mechanical engineers at all levels, developing their technical skills and systems-level thinking
Lead rigorous design reviews, providing constructive feedback that elevates the quality of engineering work across the team
Guide and coach team members on cross-domain execution, helping them understand the interplay between mechanical, thermal, structural, and systems engineering
Contribute broadly to hiring, onboarding, and training of mechanical engineering talent; help build a culture of technical excellence
Document and disseminate best practices, design patterns, and lessons learned to accelerate team development
Manage direct reports of mechanical engineers of all levels, if needed
Design & Analysis
Apply First Principles engineering and extensive knowledge of theories, practices, and design matters to solve complex, long-term challenges
Lead the application of existing design principles while guiding development of new approaches and standards
Perform and guide stress, dynamic, and thermal analyses to optimize designs including joint design, stiffness analyses, and weight reduction
Work with structural and thermal analysts to iterate and refine designs for performance and manufacturability
Oversee and directly make economically sound make vs. buy decisions, balancing rapid capability demonstration with constellation scale-up requirements
Execution & Delivery
Own delivery of optimized mechanical systems, coordinating multidisciplinary efforts between analysts, avionics, thermal, optical, RF, and program teams
Review and improve existing test practices for vibration, TVAC, and EMI campaigns, applying lessons learned from prior flight programs
Influence design decisions to ensure hardware is optimized for both build efficiency and test effectiveness
Drive products to scale from prototype builds to quantities of hundreds or thousands
Build strong relationships with teams inside and outside Muon, leveraging your industry network and knowledge
Required Qualifications
Nice-to-have Skills
Salary
The salary range for this role is $239,000 - $260,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.
About Muon Space
Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end-to-end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission-critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.
Taking Care of Our Team
At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.
Our mission embraces the entire planet and we believe our team should too. Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants. We encourage you to apply, even if you don't check all the boxes, and we look forward to reviewing your application! In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.
ITAR/EAR Requirements
This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.