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Mechanical Engineering Intern, Spring 2027

Dispatch
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San Francisco, CA$30/hrInternPosted 1w ago

About the role

Internship at Dispatch working on mechanical structure, mechanisms, payload accommodation, and thermal protection system integration for Spark-1 reentry vehicle in-space manufacturing. In-person in San Francisco, Spring 2027, US citizen/permanent resident required.

Responsibilities

  • Own or contribute to the design of primary structure, secondary structure, and mechanisms for Spark-1
  • Perform structural analysis by hand calculation and FEA for launch, on-orbit, reentry, and recovery load environments
  • Produce drawing packages with GD&T and work with machine shops and vendors through fabrication, inspection, and assembly
  • Design, build, and test deployable mechanisms, hold-down and release devices, payload accommodation hardware, and test fixtures
  • Support environmental testing, including vibration, shock, and thermal vacuum, and mass properties tracking for launch vehicle integration

Qualifications

  • Currently pursuing a BS, MS, or PhD in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field
  • Experience in structural design, mechanisms, machine design, structural analysis, or hardware fabrication and test
  • Familiarity with CAD tools such as SolidWorks, NX, Onshape, or Fusion, and FEA tools such as Nastran, ANSYS, or Abaqus
  • Comfortable taking a design from concept through analysis, drawings, fabrication, and test

Skills

Required:Mechanical designCAD toolsFinite Element Analysis (FEA)GD&T drawing packagesStructural analysisManufacturing collaboration
Last updated Oct 25, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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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.

ManufacturingAerospaceAdvanced Materials
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