Senior Mechanical Engineer, Solar & Deployables

About the company

Muon Space is the Mission Foundry that designs, builds, and operates high-performance satellite constellations for defense, civil, and commercial customers.

About this role

<h2><strong>About the role</strong></h2> <p>Muon seeks a Senior Mechanical Engineer who pairs strong design skills with a deep analysis background to join our new Solar &amp; Deployables hardware group. You'll design the deployable structures that carry our solar arrays — mission-critical, single-point-failure hardware — and own the structural, dynamic, and thermoelastic analyses that prove those designs will survive launch and perform on orbit. Design and analysis go hand-in-hand in this role: the engineer who designs the hardware is the engineer who understands its margins.</p> <p>As a foundational member of the group, you'll work closely with our mechanisms and photovoltaics leads, partner with Muon's dedicated structural analysis group on the critical interactions between the arrays and the spacecraft bus, and help establish the design and analysis practices that scale from prototype builds through constellation-quantity production.</p> <p class="p1"><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.</p> <h2><strong>Responsibilities</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Design deployable structures and supporting hardware for Muon's solar arrays, from concept and trade studies through detailed design, prototyping, and qualification</li> <li>Own the structural, dynamic, and thermoelastic analyses of your designs, and support analysis across the group's arrays and mechanisms</li> <li>Perform structural FEA — static, modal, random vibration, and shock — and analyze deployment dynamics, kinematics, and torque/force margins</li> <li>Partner with Muon's dedicated structural analysis group to understand and manage the critical interactions between the solar arrays and the spacecraft bus — interface loads, coupled dynamics, and stiffness requirements</li> <li>Build and test prototypes; support deployment testing with gravity offload and environmental test campaigns (vibration, TVAC, shock)</li> <li>Correlate analysis models against modal, vibration, and deployment test data, and iterate designs based on results</li> <li>Produce and release engineering documentation: drawings, GD&amp;T, BOMs, and analysis reports under configuration control</li> <li>Deliver design and analysis packages for design reviews (PDR, CDR, MRR) and document methods, margins, and best practices</li> <li>Support designs from prototype builds through constellation-scale production</li> </ul> <h2><strong>Required Qualifications</strong></h2> <ul> <li>8+ years of experience designing, building, and testing high-reliability hardware, including 5+ years of structural analysis</li> <li>Proven track record designing precision mechanical or deployable hardware from concept through qualification</li> <li>Strong command of structural FEA — static, modal, and random vibration — using FEMAP/NASTRAN, ANSYS, or similar</li> <li>Experience analyzing deployment dynamics and mechanism margins (torque/force, kinematics)</li> <li>Demonstrated experience correlating analysis models to test data (modal surveys, vibration, deployment)</li> <li>Expert-level CAD skills (SolidWorks preferred) with mastery of drawings, GD&amp;T, and tolerance/mass budgets</li> <li>Working understanding of environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, shock)</li> <li>Excellent communication and documentation skills, including analysis reports and margin summaries</li> <li>B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field</li> </ul> <h2><strong>Nice-to-have Skills</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Flight heritage — hardware you designed or analyzed that has operated successfully in space</li> <li>Direct experience designing or analyzing solar arrays or deployable structures</li> <li>Thermal-distortion or thermoelastic analysis experience for precision or deployed structures</li> <li>Composite panel and bonded-joint design and analysis experience</li> <li>Strong classical hand-analysis skills (strength, joints, fasteners, preload)</li> <li>Analysis automation in Python, MATLAB, or similar</li> </ul> <h2><strong>Salary</strong></h2> <p>The salary range for this role is <span data-sheets-root="1">$183,000 - $198,000</span>, 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.&nbsp;</p><div class="content-conclusion"><h2><strong>About Muon Space</strong></h2> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p> <h2><strong>Taking Care of Our Team</strong></h2> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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 &amp; 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.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our mission embraces the entire planet and we believe our team should too.&nbsp; Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, reli