Director, Mission Engineering & Management Long Beach, California, United States

Director, Mission Engineering & Management

Location: Long Beach, California, United States.

Vast is developing next‑generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space. We are seeking a Director, Mission Engineering & Management to own program and mission execution for a new constellation‑ready spacecraft bus product line. This full‑time, exempt role is located in our Long Beach office.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the integrated master schedule (IMS), critical path analysis, and milestone tracking.
• Own system‑level requirements – capture in the digital twin toolchain, flow down to subsystem teams.
• Own system budget closure against mission and customer requirements – engineering maintains the bottoms‑up budgets; you own whether they close with adequate margin and drive resolution when they don't.
• Represent the customer and mission perspective within engineering – challenge system trades and design decisions against requirements, build consensus with the engineering team, and bring well‑formed positions to customer negotiations.
• Manage customer interface – payload requirements, ICD negotiations, and schedule alignment across all manifest slots.
• Manage the satellite manifest – assign payloads, build order, configuration tracking.
• Negotiate launch contracts and manage the launch vehicle provider relationship.
• Plan and coordinate the launch campaign – launch site logistics, range compliance, satellite shipping and stacking sequence.
• Plan facility readiness – engineering offices, avionics lab, manufacturing floor, clean room, TVAC, vibration, integration bay.
• Track risks, action items, and review close‑out across all design reviews.
• Manage L‑minus milestone tracking (L‑180 through L‑14).
• Coordinate spectrum licensing for confirmed and TBD customer payloads.
• Own status reporting – weekly cadence, management visibility.
• Partner with business development as the technical counterpart on proposals and new business – ensure what we sign up to is executable before we commit.
• Track vendor delivery schedules with the procurement lead.

Within your first 6 weeks

• Baseline the IMS and critical path with the Director of Engineering.
• Establish customer relationships and understand payload requirements status for all 10 manifest slots (6 confirmed, 4 TBD).
• Take ownership of system budgets and identify any that aren't closed with margin.
• Understand the facility planning timeline and flag any gaps.
• Take ownership of program execution – drive schedule, customer relationships, and cross‑functional coordination.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of engineering experience in aerospace or defense.
• 3+ years of program management, mission engineering, or systems engineering leadership experience.
• Experience running satellite or complex hardware delivery programs – schedule, cost, customer management.
• Strong systems engineering background – able to own requirements, budgets, and interfaces, not just track them.
• Experience managing multi‑unit builds (constellation, batch production, or similar).

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Able to obtain a security clearance.
• Launch campaign experience (any launch provider).
• Payload accommodation and ICD negotiation experience across multiple customer types.
• Experience with launch site facility operations.
• Spectrum licensing and regulatory coordination.

Pay Range

California

$188,600 - $267,720 USD

Compensation and Benefits

Base salary will vary depending on job‑related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full‑time employees also receive company equity, 100% 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 for non‑exempt staff with the ability to cash out unused vacation annually, paid parental leave, short and long‑term disability insurance, life insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks. We also offer food perks, including snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals free of charge, with lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high‑quality meals for employees.

U.S. Export Control Compliance Status

The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls. Therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” (U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee) or be otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing.

Equal Opportunity

Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.