{"id":2866367,"url":"https://alion.io/job/outpost-payload-engineer","title":"Payload Engineer","company":{"id":452165,"name":"Outpost","domain":"outpost.space","url":"https://alion.io/company/outpost-6","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":12,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":162,"computed_at":"2026-10-22T06:10:10Z"}},"role":"Aerospace","role_family":"Aerospace","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Los Angeles, United States","Santa Monica, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":104000,"max_usd":197000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":5966},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-19T16:29:26Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-19","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22T14:34:40Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":2},"description":"Payload Engineer\nLocation: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week)\nThe return lane isn’t going to build itself. Come build it with us.\nOutpost is an orbital logistics company rewriting the rules of global logistics by building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and 60-minute global delivery through space.\nOur CarryAll vehicle family returns payloads ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can then be refurbished and launched again. One vehicle, many missions: responsive logistics and precision delivery for national security; commercial cargo moved with real cadence; R&D payloads flown, tested, and refined across repeatable cycles; and critical aid delivered where roads and runways can’t reach.\nThe demand is already here, validated through defense and civil agreements and supported by a growing pipeline of government and commercial customers. We have the customers, the team, and a clear technical path ahead of us. We’re building the return lane. Come build it with us.\nThe Team\nThe Mission Engineering team defines how each Outpost mission flies, from launch integration and on-orbit operations through deorbit, reentry, descent, and recovery. The team owns launch provider relationships, payload bay definition, customer requirements, and the end-to-end technical execution of multiple vehicle programs.\nThis role establishes the payload engineering discipline within the team. The Payload Engineer works directly with structures, thermal, avionics, harnessing, and integration and test engineers to define payload accommodations, and represents those accommodations to customers during mission scoping, design reviews, integration, and post-flight payload return.\nResponsibilities\nDefine payload accommodations for each vehicle in the CarryAll family, including usable volume, mass and center-of-gravity limits, mechanical load paths, power, data, and environmental control capabilities.\nDevelop and maintain the Outpost standard payload interface, covering mounting patterns, fastener and adapter hardware, connectors, and electrical interface definitions.\nAuthor and maintain the Payload User Guide, payload Interface Control Documents (ICDs), and payload requirements and verification matrices.\nDesign bespoke payload bays, enclosures, brackets, and adapter structures for customer-specific missions, from concept through detailed design, drawing release, and verification.\nDefine and verify the payload environment across all mission phases, including launch loads, vibration, shock, thermal, vacuum and pressure, radiation, reentry deceleration, and landing loads.\nSpecify payload environmental control approaches, including thermal conditioning, pressurization, humidity, and contamination control, in coordination with other subsystem engineers.\nDefine payload electrical interfaces with the avionics and harness teams, including connector selection, harness routing, grounding, and EMI/EMC considerations.\nServe as the primary technical point of contact for payload customers, translating customer needs into requirements and leading interface working groups and design reviews.\nSupport mission feasibility assessments and customer proposals with payload accommodation trades and capability definitions.\nPlan and support payload integration, fit checks, environmental testing, and post-recovery payload de-integration.\nEstablish payload integration processes, handling procedures, and documentation standards that scale across multiple concurrent missions.\nQualifications\nBachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field.\n5+ years of experience designing, integrating, or qualifying spacecraft, payload, or launch vehicle hardware.\nDemonstrated understanding of the space environment and its effects on hardware, including launch loads, vibration, shock, thermal cycling, vacuum, outgassing, and radiation.\nExperience designing flight structures, mounting hardware, or enclosures from concept through drawing release, using CAD tools with working knowledge of GD&T.\nWorking knowledge of electrical interfaces, including flight connector selection, harness design and routing, pinout definition, and grounding.\nExperience authoring or managing ICDs, requirements, and verification plans.\nFamiliarity with structural and thermal analysis to define requirements and review analysis results.\nClear written and verbal communication, including direct engagement with customers and external partners.\nPreferred Experience\nExperience with in-space manufacturing, microgravity research, or biopharmaceutical processing hardware.\nExperience as the responsible engineer for a hosted or customer-furnished payload through flight.\nExperience with reentry, return, or recovered payloads, including post-landing payload retrieval and handover.\nExperience with environmental test campaigns and standards such as GSFC-STD-7000 (GEVS) and SMC-S-016.\nExperience with pressurized enclosures, active or passive thermal control, or payload conditioning systems.\nExperience with contamination control and cleanroom operations (ISO Class 7 or better).\nExperience with launch vehicle or rideshare payload interfaces and payload user guides.\nCompensation & Benefits\n Competitive compensation: $140,000 - $170,000; (commensurate with experience).\nAdditional Compensation: Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.\nShared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.\nComprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. \nProtection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.\nPTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.\n Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.\nFueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.\nMission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.\nPet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.\nMonthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more! \nYou must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 , or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State","description_format":"text","description_chars":6780,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Health insurance","Life insurance","Pet friendly"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-19T17:50:47Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":162,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-22T06:10:10Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/outpost-payload-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/outpost-payload-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-22T18:11:41Z","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":674,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-23T00:00:00Z"}},"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":452165},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=452165"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Foutpost-payload-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%2Foutpost-payload-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%2Foutpost-payload-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/outpost-payload-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Foutpost-payload-engineer"}]}