Senior Harness Design Engineer

Vast • Long Beach, CA

4d • Onsite

About The Position

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.
Vast is looking for a Senior Harness Design Engineer, reporting to the VP, Avionics, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and manufacturing of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or other engineering discipline
• 5+ years of experience in design focused roles
• 2+ years of experience with wire harness 3D design, wiring diagrams, and formboard creation.
• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time
• Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones
• Ability to lift up to 25 lbs unassisted

Nice To Haves

• Experience designing harnesses to IPC/WHMA-A-620, IPC/WHMA-A-620-S, and NASA-STD-8739.4.
• Strong team working skills with a proven ability to effectively interact and collaborate with other engineering disciplines and excellent attention to detail.
• 2+ years of experience with Siemens NX and Teamcenter.
• Wire harness component selection and qualification experience.
• General wire harness analysis, testing, and qualification experience.
• 2+ years of experience with harness design and manufacturing documentation.
• Capability to solve complex design problems within tight schedules and minimal supervision.
• Passion for advancing the commercial space industry and space exploration, with a strong desire to revolutionize wire harness design.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, autonomously driven, and demanding startup atmosphere.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• Strong sense of personal accountability and drive to succeed.

Responsibilities

• Develop the electro-mechanical design of flight wire harnesses for the Haven space station.
• Develop the electro-mechanical design of development and test harnesses to support qualification testing efforts.
• Design and analyze complex electrical architectures and wire harness systems, including development of detailed wiring diagrams, connector layouts, and system integration documentation for multi-disciplinary spacecraft/vehicle electrical systems
• Evaluate and implement power distribution and data communication strategies, ensuring proper signal integrity across mixed power/data pathways and selecting appropriate communication protocols (CAN, Ethernet, RS-422, USB, etc.) for system requirements
• Develop system logic and control architectures, creating interface control documents (ICDs) and performing electrical analysis to ensure compatibility between subsystems, including power budgeting, load analysis, and signal routing optimization
• Meet with multidisciplinary stakeholders to gather harness design objectives and requirements.
• Develop harness design and routing solutions with a 3D NX CAD environment.
• Provide great flight wire harness and vehicle/system level documentation
• Perform analysis and physical testing of harnessing with respect to thermal, loads, vibration, and shock to ensure full qualification for flight.
• Document and communicate the design, analysis, and testing results thoroughly and clearly through the use of design reviews.
• Interface with harness production and integration teams to ensure final harness designs can be produced and installed on schedule in accordance with overall project goals.
• Perform R&D investigations and trade studies to push wire harness design to new boundaries in terms of capabilities, mass savings, cost savings.

Benefits

• 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 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 Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior