Principal Mechanical Engineer (San Jose)
About The Role Muon seeks a Principal Mechanical Engineer to join our Mechanical Engineering team. This role focuses on leveraging deep space industry experience to optimize and mature our existing spacecraft designs while mentoring and developing our mechanical engineering team. As a Principal Engineer, you will apply your extensive flight heritage to enhance Muon's current spacecraft architectures, driving improvements in performance, manufacturability, and reliability. You'll serve as a technical leader and trusted advisor across the organization, using your expertise to guide critical design decisions and establish best practices that scale with our growing constellation production. The ideal candidate brings proven space hardware experience and a passion for developing others. You will be a force multiplier—someone who elevates the entire team through hands‑on mentorship, rigorous design reviews, and the establishment of standards that capture lessons learned. This is a Principal-level (L7) individual contributor role focused on technical leadership and mentorship, potentially including some people management. Due to the hands‑on nature of this role, it does require onsite work at our Mountain View and San Jose locations. Responsibilities Technical Leadership & Design Optimization Serve as a principal technical advisor and domain expert, applying extensive space industry experience to optimize and mature existing spacecraft mechanical designs. Lead architecture refinement efforts to improve performance, reduce mass, lower cost, and enhance manufacturability of current spacecraft platforms. Oversee creative research and innovation strategies; provide guidance on advanced technical issues to leadership; work to rationalize and standardize company-wide standards and principles. Use your flight heritage and lessons learned to identify design improvements and risk reduction opportunities across the spacecraft portfolio. Create roadmaps with 1 year horizons that influence the future direction of Muon's products in alignment with business objectives and the evolving space industry. Mentorship & Team Development Act as a force multiplier by providing strong, hands‑on mentorship to mechanical engineers at all levels, developing their technical skills and systems‑level thinking. Lead rigorous design reviews, providing constructive feedback that elevates the quality of engineering work across the team. Guide and coach team members on cross‑domain execution, helping them understand the interplay between mechanical, thermal, structural, and systems engineering. Contribute broadly to hiring, onboarding, and training of mechanical engineering talent; help build a culture of technical excellence. Document and disseminate best practices, design patterns, and lessons learned to accelerate team development. Manage direct reports of mechanical engineers of all levels, if needed. Design & Analysis Apply first‑principles engineering and extensive knowledge of theories, practices, and design matters to solve complex, long‑term challenges. Lead the application of existing design principles while guiding development of new approaches and standards. Perform and guide stress, dynamic, and thermal analyses to optimize designs including joint design, stiffness analyses, and weight reduction. Work with structural and thermal analysts to iterate and refine designs for performance and manufacturability. Oversee and directly make economically sound make‑vs‑buy decisions, balancing rapid capability demonstration with constellation scale‑up requirements. Execution & Delivery Own delivery of optimized mechanical systems, coordinating multidisciplinary efforts between analysts, avionics, thermal, optical, RF, and program teams. Review and improve existing test practices for vibration, TVAC, and EMI campaigns, applying lessons learned from prior flight programs. Influence design decisions to ensure hardware is optimized for both build efficiency and test effectiveness. Drive products to scale from prototype builds to quantities of hundreds or thousands. Build strong relationships with teams inside and outside Muon, leveraging your industry network and knowledge. Required Qualifications 12 years of experience designing, building, and testing flight hardware in the space industry, with multiple programs through on‑orbit operations. Demonstrated flight heritage—hardware you designed that has successfully operated in space. Proven track record of optimizing and maturing existing designs, not just clean‑sheet development. Expert professional and technical knowledge with the ability to guide and role‑model use of professional concepts in developing solutions to critical issues. Strong mentorship experience with demonstrated success in developing junior and mid‑level engineers. Direct or indirect experience leading teams of engineers and/or technicians. Deep competence in one or more of: structural mechanics and analysis, thermal management and modeling, environmental testing (TVAC, vibration). Extensive documentation capabilities: build procedures, test plans, design trades, best‑practice guides. Mastery of standard tools: CAD (SolidWorks preferred), PLM, ERP, FEA, test hardware and equipment. Expert‑level skills with drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets. Experience managing external vendors for part development and manufacturing. Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills. B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering or related field. A desire to change the way the world understands and reacts to climate and environmental data. Nice‑to‑have Skills Experience as a recognized technical leader or subject‑matter expert in a spacecraft organization. Prior Principal, Staff, or Lead Engineer title at a space company. Experience with deployable structures (solar arrays, antennas, mechanisms). Optomechanical instrument or payload design experience. Experience with reaction wheels, torque rods, star trackers, or other ADCS components. Large assembly management in SolidWorks PDM, Duro, or similar PLM. Experience running structural analyses (FEMAP, ANSYS). Software skills in Python, MATLAB, or similar. Experience qualifying external vendors and contract manufacturers. Track record of establishing engineering standards at an organizational level. Salary The salary range for this role is $239,000 – $260,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process. About Muon Space Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end‑to‑end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission‑critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time‑to‑orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state‑of‑the‑art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world. Our Mission Taking Care of Our Team: At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full‑time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long‑term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave. Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants. We encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes, and we look forward to reviewing your application! In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know. ITAR/EAR Requirements This position requires access to export‑controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be: A U.S. person, defined as a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), refugee, or asylee; Eligible to access the export‑controlled information without a required export authorization, or; Eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process. Seniority Level Mid‑Senior level Employment Type Full‑time Job Function Engineering and Information Technology Industries Space Research and Technology J-18808-Ljbffr
