Payload Engineer

Payload Engineer
Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week)
The return lane isn’t going to build itself. Come build it with us.
Outpost is an orbital logistics company rewriting the rules of global logistics by building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and 60-minute global delivery through space.
Our CarryAll vehicle family returns payloads ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can then be refurbished and launched again. One vehicle, many missions: responsive logistics and precision delivery for national security; commercial cargo moved with real cadence; R&D payloads flown, tested, and refined across repeatable cycles; and critical aid delivered where roads and runways can’t reach.
The demand is already here, validated through defense and civil agreements and supported by a growing pipeline of government and commercial customers. We have the customers, the team, and a clear technical path ahead of us. We’re building the return lane. Come build it with us.
The Team
The Mission Engineering team defines how each Outpost mission flies, from launch integration and on-orbit operations through deorbit, reentry, descent, and recovery. The team owns launch provider relationships, payload bay definition, customer requirements, and the end-to-end technical execution of multiple vehicle programs.
This role establishes the payload engineering discipline within the team. The Payload Engineer works directly with structures, thermal, avionics, harnessing, and integration and test engineers to define payload accommodations, and represents those accommodations to customers during mission scoping, design reviews, integration, and post-flight payload return.
Responsibilities
Define payload accommodations for each vehicle in the CarryAll family, including usable volume, mass and center-of-gravity limits, mechanical load paths, power, data, and environmental control capabilities.
Develop and maintain the Outpost standard payload interface, covering mounting patterns, fastener and adapter hardware, connectors, and electrical interface definitions.
Author and maintain the Payload User Guide, payload Interface Control Documents (ICDs), and payload requirements and verification matrices.
Design bespoke payload bays, enclosures, brackets, and adapter structures for customer-specific missions, from concept through detailed design, drawing release, and verification.
Define and verify the payload environment across all mission phases, including launch loads, vibration, shock, thermal, vacuum and pressure, radiation, reentry deceleration, and landing loads.
Specify payload environmental control approaches, including thermal conditioning, pressurization, humidity, and contamination control, in coordination with other subsystem engineers.
Define payload electrical interfaces with the avionics and harness teams, including connector selection, harness routing, grounding, and EMI/EMC considerations.
Serve as the primary technical point of contact for payload customers, translating customer needs into requirements and leading interface working groups and design reviews.
Support mission feasibility assessments and customer proposals with payload accommodation trades and capability definitions.
Plan and support payload integration, fit checks, environmental testing, and post-recovery payload de-integration.
Establish payload integration processes, handling procedures, and documentation standards that scale across multiple concurrent missions.
Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field.
5+ years of experience designing, integrating, or qualifying spacecraft, payload, or launch vehicle hardware.
Demonstrated understanding of the space environment and its effects on hardware, including launch loads, vibration, shock, thermal cycling, vacuum, outgassing, and radiation.
Experience designing flight structures, mounting hardware, or enclosures from concept through drawing release, using CAD tools with working knowledge of GD&T.
Working knowledge of electrical interfaces, including flight connector selection, harness design and routing, pinout definition, and grounding.
Experience authoring or managing ICDs, requirements, and verification plans.
Familiarity with structural and thermal analysis to define requirements and review analysis results.
Clear written and verbal communication, including direct engagement with customers and external partners.
Preferred Experience
Experience with in-space manufacturing, microgravity research, or biopharmaceutical processing hardware.
Experience as the responsible engineer for a hosted or customer-furnished payload through flight.
Experience with reentry, return, or recovered payloads, including post-landing payload retrieval and handover.
Experience with environmental test campaigns and standards such as GSFC-STD-7000 (GEVS) and SMC-S-016.
Experience with pressurized enclosures, active or passive thermal control, or payload conditioning systems.
Experience with contamination control and cleanroom operations (ISO Class 7 or better).
Experience with launch vehicle or rideshare payload interfaces and payload user guides.
Compensation & Benefits
Competitive compensation: $140,000 – $170,000; (commensurate with experience).
Additional Compensation: Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental.
Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.