Vast develops commercial space stations to support sustained human activity, research, and manufacturing in low-Earth orbit and beyond.
<div class="content-intro"><p>At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.</p></div><p>Vast is looking for a <strong>Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics),</strong> reporting to the <strong>Director of Build & Supplier Reliability</strong>, to support the reliability of flight avionics hardware across the product lifecycle for our human-rated space stations.</p> <p>This will be a <strong>full-time</strong>, <strong>exempt</strong> position located in our <strong>Long Beach</strong> location. </p> <p><strong>Responsibilities: </strong></p> <ul> <li>Own Build Reliability for avionics hardware and work centers, setting expectations for reliability, manufacturability, and build and flight readiness.</li> <li>Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Mission Assurance leadership to ensure robust, scalable quality and verification plans across the product lifecycle, with lessons consistently carried across programs.</li> <li>Ensure successful introduction of flight hardware by defining readiness criteria–including process qualification, manufacturability, and inspectability–and driving the retirement of build risks through production ramp-up.</li> <li>Drive maturation of internal avionics production processes, ensuring documentation, equipment, tooling, process controls, data collection, and training support consistent and streamlined execution.</li> <li>Ensure off-nominal work is performed and documented reliably. Partner with Mission Assurance to drive risk mitigations and steer response plans to severe issues. Provide leadership and technical direction for high-visibility issues, establishing recovery plans and aligning operations, quality, and engineering on execution.</li> <li>Collect and analyze build data to identify risk and recurring issues. Lead build quality reviews, generate data-driven recommendations, and effectively influence partner teams to prioritize efforts that prevent escapes and improve reliability.</li> <li>Lead containment and root-cause investigation of high-impact Avionics-related issues. Ensure implementation and verification of robust corrective actions that address root cause and systemic contributors across Vast.</li> <li>Lead major cost reduction initiatives through simplification of requirements, clearer design standards, streamlined inspection and process validation steps, and strengthened process controls.</li> <li>Mentor individuals and teams to elevate reliability capabilities across the company.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Minimum Qualifications:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent experience</li> <li>12+ years of experience in quality, manufacturing, reliability, or design in aerospace, defense, or high-reliability hardware environments</li> <li>Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives with executive visibility and influence technical direction across organizations</li> <li>Excellent communication and technical leadership skills</li> </ul> <p><strong>Preferred Skills & Experience:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Proven track record of driving systemic improvements and shaping engineering strategy.</li> <li>Deep expertise in reliability engineering, quality systems, and standards (ISO 9001, AS9100, etc.)</li> <li>Mastery of advanced reliability and quality tools (RCA, FMEA, SPC, control plans); Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent experience preferred</li> <li>Strong technical depth in avionics design, manufacturing, integration, and/or test</li> </ul> <p><strong>Additional Requirements:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Ability to travel up to 10%</li> <li>Ability to support mission-critical events outside normal working hours</li> </ul><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="title">Pay Range: California</div><div class="pay-range"><span>$137,760</span><span class="divider">—</span><span>$230,472 USD</span></div></div></div><div class="content-conclusion"><p style="line-height: 1;"><strong>COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS<br></strong><br>Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks. We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of V