Mechanical Engineer
About the role
First mechanical engineer for Dispatch’s reusable reentry vehicles; own structural design, mechanisms, and integration from CAD to qualification testing to launch in a founding role.
Responsibilities
- Design the primary vehicle structure (load paths, interfaces, payload volume)
- Own mechanical systems: deployment mechanisms, recovery/parachute systems, payload integration hardware
- Run structural analysis (FEA) for launch and reentry load environments
- Produce engineering drawings with GD&T for fabricated and machined parts
- Build and test prototype hardware
- Support environmental qualification testing (vibration, thermal vacuum)
Qualifications
- 3+ years designing and building flight hardware (spacecraft, launch vehicles, hypersonics, or missiles)
- Strong mechanical design skills: structures, mechanisms, packaging in constrained volumes
- Proficiency in CAD (SOLIDWORKS or similar) and FEA tools (Femap or similar)
- Hands-on prototyping experience - you've machined, assembled, and tested your own designs
- Comfortable working across disciplines at an early-stage company
Skills
About Dispatch
Satellites for manufacturing in space
Dispatch is building refurbishable reentry vehicles that host and return payloads for companies making ultra-high-value materials (semiconductors, biotech, and pharma) that can only be manufactured in space. Right now, these companies have no practical way to manufacture and get their products back to Earth. We solve this bottleneck. We just returned from the Mojave Desert testing our first full-scale reentry heat shield designed to protect the satellite as it returns from space at Mach 20+, built in an apartment for 100x cheaper than competitors. To test, we held it behind a rocket engine to simulate the forces of atmospheric reentry. IT WORKED! Watch here - https://youtu.be/dhlQmnIoptg To scale, we anchor permanent infrastructure in orbit - building high power Autonomous Space Stations designed from day one for "lights-out" manufacturing serviced by the reentry vehicles.
More open roles at Dispatch
- Mechanical Engineering Intern, Spring 20271w agoSan Francisco, CA
- Thermal Engineer1mo agoHybrid (San Francisco, CA)
- GNC Engineering Intern1mo agoHybrid (San Francisco, CA) · Engineering
- Thermal Engineering Intern1mo agoHybrid (San Francisco, CA) · Engineering, Mechanical
- Electrical Engineering Intern1mo agoSan Francisco, CA · Engineering