{"id":3563062,"url":"https://alion.io/job/xona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-engineer","title":"Senior Mechanical Engineer","company":{"id":685097,"name":"Xona Space Systems","domain":"xonaspace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/xonaspace","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":14,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.286,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":84,"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"}},"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":["Burlingame, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":173000,"max":218000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":218000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"GD&T","optional":false},{"name":"SolidWorks","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-31T02:55:21Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-31","last_verified_at":"2026-11-02T21:28:50Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.\nWith Pulsar - the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit - Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.\nRole Overview\nWe’re looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer who can take a complex mechanical problem, define a practical approach, and deliver reliable hardware. You will own spacecraft subsystems and critical equipment from early requirements and trade studies through design, build, qualification, and production support.\nProjects may include primary structure, deployable mechanisms, launch vehicle interfaces, solar arrays, machined and sheet metal brackets, electronics enclosures, precision mounts, and high-criticality mechanical ground support equipment (GSE). Your assignments will evolve with the needs of the spacecraft and the team.\nYou will work with substantial autonomy, make sound decisions with incomplete information, and help the team resolve its most challenging mechanical issues. This is a hands-on individual contributor role with technical leadership and mentoring responsibilities.\nWhat you will do\nOwn complex mechanical subsystems from concept through qualification and production, establishing requirements, interfaces, verification plans, and realistic delivery schedules.\n\nLead mechanical trade studies and contribute to spacecraft layouts and architecture, balancing load paths, packaging, thermal interfaces, reliability, cost, manufacturability, and integration needs.\n\nDesign flight hardware and critical GSE; release CAD, drawings, bills of materials, and interface definitions with clear GD&T, tolerance analysis, and configuration control.\n\nUse first-principles calculations and structural FEA to substantiate designs. Partner with structural and thermal specialists to define loads, boundary conditions, margins, and verification needs.\n\nBuild prototypes, work directly with hardware, and develop fixtures and functional tests to retire risks. Own qualification of assigned hardware and occasionally support spacecraft vibration and TVAC campaigns.\n\nLead resolution of build, integration, test, and production anomalies: contain the issue, investigate root cause, implement corrective action, and verify the fix.\n\nOwn supplier technical execution, including requirements, design reviews, procurement coordination, inspection criteria, and resolution of manufacturing issues.\n\nCoordinate across mechanical, thermal, electrical, payload, GNC, manufacturing, and integration and test teams. Identify risks early, communicate tradeoffs, and drive issues to closure.\n\nReview designs, mentor engineers, and improve engineering practices while remaining directly responsible for delivering hardware.\n\nRequired qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related engineering field.\n\n7+ years of mechanical hardware development experience, with demonstrated responsibility for complex assemblies or subsystems in aerospace or another high-reliability field.\n\nA record of independently taking hardware from requirements and concept through detailed design, build, and qualification or equivalent verification.\n\nStrong mechanical fundamentals, including load paths, joints and fasteners, materials, thermal and optical properties, manufacturing processes, GD&T, and tolerance analysis.\n\nProficiency in 3D CAD and drawing release using SolidWorks or a comparable platform, with disciplined PDM and configuration management practices.\n\nAbility to perform and critically assess structural calculations and FEA, understand modeling assumptions, and reconcile analysis with physical test results.\n\nHands-on experience assembling, inspecting, troubleshooting, and testing hardware, including resolving issues during integration or production.\n\nDemonstrated judgment in technical tradeoffs, clear communication across disciplines, and experience guiding design reviews or mentoring other engineers.\n\nPreferred qualifications\nExperience with spacecraft hardware, launch environments, or other high-reliability hardware with demanding structural and environmental requirements.\n\nExperience with deployment or separation mechanisms, precision assemblies, electronics packaging, or spacecraft handling and lifting equipment.\n\nExperience supporting vibration, shock, or thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing and using test results to improve hardware.\n\nExperience transitioning designs into repeatable production, resolving supplier issues, or improving assembly and inspection processes.\n\nExperience leading subsystem architecture, managing complex supplier deliverables, or coordinating technical interfaces with launch providers or deployer vendors.\n\nExperience in every hardware category listed above is not expected. We are interested in the depth of your engineering work, the hardware you have delivered, and your ability to apply that experience to new problems.\nFor U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).\nFor U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).\nFor Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.\nWe celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6047,"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":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Satellite Navigation","Satellite Manufacturing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-31T06:40:42Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":84,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":218000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/xona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/xona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T01:16:05Z","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":1554,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-04T00:00:00Z"}},"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":685097},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=685097"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fxona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-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%2Fxona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-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%2Fxona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-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/xona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fxona-space-systems-senior-mechanical-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3563062}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"xonaspace.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3563062},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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