{"id":3188594,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer","title":"Senior Structures Engineer","company":{"id":8929,"name":"Cowboy Space","domain":"cowboyspace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cowboyspace","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":5,"ghost_share":0.2,"stale_share":0.4,"repost_share":0.2,"time_to_fill_p50_days":47,"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Kent, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":172000,"max":203000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":203000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"GD&T","optional":false},{"name":"TPU","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T23:36:33Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-27T06:09:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"About Cowboy Space Corp:\nMission\nCowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity's most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.\nBackground\nCowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.\nCurrent energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.\nBaiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father's work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.\nThis is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation's team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.\nAbout the Role\nAs a Sr. Structures Engineer, you will own the design and development of primary tanks and welded structures for our launch vehicle-from requirements and first-order sizing through detailed design, fabrication, qualification, and flight. You will turn pressure, thermal, and vehicle load requirements into lightweight, reliable hardware that we can build, inspect, and test.\nYou will work closely with structural analysis, fluids, propulsion, manufacturing, and test teams to develop structural architectures, define interfaces, and resolve issues as hardware moves from the drawing to the floor. Beyond delivering individual components, you will help establish the design practices and technical judgment the team uses to develop flight structures.\nYou’ll be expected to move quickly, iterate often, spend time with hardware, and take full ownership of the structures you deliver.\nResponsibilities\nOwn the full lifecycle of primary tanks and welded structures-from requirements, architecture, and preliminary sizing through drawing release, fabrication, testing, and flight readiness.\n\nDesign tank barrels, domes, bulkheads, weld joints, penetrations, attachments, and supporting structures with clear load paths and well-defined interfaces.\n\nPerform first-order sizing and design trades to balance structural performance, mass, manufacturability, inspectability, cost, and schedule.\n\nWork with structural analysts to establish design load cases and verify strength, buckling, fatigue, and damage tolerance under pressure, thermal, and vehicle loads. Incorporate analysis and test findings into the design.\n\nDevelop and release CAD models, engineering drawings, and specifications, including material requirements, GD&T, weld details, and inspection requirements.\n\nPartner with manufacturing and welding engineers to develop practical fabrication and assembly approaches, accounting for fit-up, tooling access, weld distortion, tolerances, and inspection access.\n\nDefine hardware verification requirements and support proof, burst, leak, and structural testing, including test configurations, fixtures, instrumentation needs, and acceptance criteria.\n\nSupport fabrication and test operations directly. Investigate anomalies, evaluate nonconformances and proposed repairs with analysis, manufacturing, and quality teams, and drive design improvements.\n\nLead design reviews, manage structural interfaces and configuration changes, and mentor engineers in structural design and hardware development.\n\nRequired Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.\n\n7+ years of experience designing and developing structures for flight vehicles, propulsion systems, or other high-performance hardware.\n\nDemonstrated ownership of metallic tanks, pressure vessels, or thin-walled welded structures from design through manufacturing and test.\n\nStrong fundamentals in solid mechanics, structural stability, materials behavior, and joint design, including an understanding of pressure loading, buckling, fatigue, and the effects of welding on structural performance.\n\nProficiency with mechanical CAD, engineering drawings, GD&T, and tolerance analysis.\n\nAbility to substantiate design decisions with classical hand calculations and interpret structural analysis results in partnership with analysts.\n\nExperience working directly with manufacturing, inspection, and test teams to resolve hardware issues.\n\nMust be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.\n\nPreferred Qualifications\nDirect experience designing launch vehicle primary structures or cryogenic propellant tanks.\n\nExperience with stainless-steel tank construction, sheet and plate forming, and welded assemblies.\n\nExperience developing weld-joint designs and supporting weld-process qualification, including consideration of material properties, heat-affected zones, distortion, defects, and nondestructive inspection.\n\nExperience with reusable or repeatedly pressurized hardware, including thermal cycling, fatigue life, inspection access, and repair considerations.\n\nExperience supporting structural qualification campaigns, pressure testing, and failure investigations.\n\nFamiliarity with relevant aerospace structural standards, pressure-vessel requirements, and material allowables sources such as MMPDS.\n\nExperience taking hardware from early development into repeatable production and improving designs based on fabrication and test results.\n\nCompensation and Benefits\nThe salary range for this position is $172,000 - $203,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.\nEquity in Cowboy Space Corp.\n\nEmployees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance\n\n401(k) retirement savings plan\n\nPaid time off\n\n10 paid holidays per calendar year\n\nPaid parental leave\n\nRelocation assistance if applicable\n\nDaily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks\n\nITAR Requirements\nExport Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITARhere .","description_format":"text","description_chars":7686,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Parental leave","Relocation assistance","Retirement plans","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Satellite Manufacturing","Space Services","AI Compute & Inference"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-24T00:58:13Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":3,"expected_fill_days":47,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":203000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-27T10:29:56Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12089,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-28T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":8929},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=8929"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcowboy-space-senior-structures-engineer"}]}