Senior Mechanical Engineer (Rotary Actuators)

Position Details

• Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA

• Employment Type: Full-time

• Department: Starlight Solar

• Travel: Occasional

The Mission

Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

Senior Mechanical Engineer (Rotary Actuators) – Space Solar

The Starlight team is focused on dramatically improving space solar power to support Starpath’s core mission and the broader space economy. Starlight manufactures the lowest-cost, highest-performance space solar power systems, which will power the majority of new satellites built on Earth and all of Starpath’s equipment on the Moon and Mars.

As a Senior Mechanical Engineer focused on rotary actuators, you will own the architecture, design, analysis, and qualification of the mechanisms that deploy and orient Starlight’s solar arrays. These include solar array drive assemblies, deployment hinges, dampers, latches, and gimbals that must survive launch and operate reliably throughout the mission.

You will serve as a technical authority for spacecraft mechanisms, resolve complex design and integration challenges, and guide hardware from early trade studies through flight qualification and production.

Responsibilities:

• Own rotary actuator and mechanism designs from architecture through detailed design, analysis, build, qualification, and flight

• Establish mechanism requirements and translate system-level needs into practical hardware architectures

• Lead technical trade studies covering performance, mass, reliability, manufacturability, cost, and schedule

• Select and integrate motors, gearheads, bearings, slip rings, brakes, dampers, and position sensors

• Size drivetrains for torque, speed, stiffness, backlash, pointing accuracy, jitter, duty cycle, and mission life

• Perform and review torque-margin, friction, structural, thermal, backlash, life, and tolerance analyses using hand calculations and FEA

• Develop lubrication, materials, surface-treatment, preload, and wear-control strategies for vacuum and thermal-cycling environments

• Define qualification and acceptance-test programs covering functional performance, life, vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, and torque margin

• Lead mechanism design reviews, failure investigations, risk-reduction efforts, and corrective actions

• Partner with electrical, controls, and avionics engineers on motor-drive electronics, feedback sensing, fault response, and closed-loop actuator control

• Work with manufacturing and suppliers to develop assembly, alignment, inspection, and production processes for precision rotating hardware

• Identify critical technical risks early and build focused development tests to resolve them

• Mentor engineers and establish sound mechanism-design and verification practices across the team

• Simplify designs, reduce part count, and eliminate complexity that does not improve performance or reliability

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline

• 6+ years of professional experience designing mechanisms, actuators, or precision mechanical systems

• Demonstrated ownership of complex mechanical hardware from concept through build and test

• Experience designing rotary mechanisms such as actuators, gearboxes, gimbals, hinges, deployment systems, or drive assemblies

• Strong understanding of motors, gear reductions, bearings, lubrication, friction, backlash, stiffness, and mechanism life

• Proficiency with 3D CAD and the ability to produce detailed engineering drawings using GD&T

• Experience performing mechanical analysis using hand calculations and FEA

• Hands-on experience building, testing, troubleshooting, and improving mechanical hardware

• Ability to make sound technical decisions with incomplete information and communicate tradeoffs clearly

• Evidence of exceptional engineering ability

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline

• Experience developing spacecraft mechanisms or other high-reliability flight hardware

• Experience selecting and integrating brushless DC motors, harmonic drives, planetary gearheads, precision bearings, and position sensors

• Expertise in space-rated tribology, including lubricant selection, bearing preload, wear, cold welding, and life testing under vacuum

• Experience with slip rings, twist capsules, or other rotary power and signal-transfer devices

• Working knowledge of motor-drive electronics, encoders, resolvers, and closed-loop position or velocity control

• Experience leading mechanism qualification campaigns and correlating test results with analytical predictions

• Familiarity with radiation, thermal, contamination, and charging considerations for spacecraft mechanisms

• Knowledge of aerospace mechanism standards and practices, including NASA-STD-5017 or applicable AIAA guidance

• Experience with solar array deployment systems, solar array drive assemblies, antenna-pointing mechanisms, or similar spacecraft hardware

• Experience transitioning precision mechanisms from prototype development into repeatable production

EAR Requirements:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, you must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Equal Opportunity:

• Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Benefits:

At Starpath Robotics, base pay is just one part of your total rewards package. We also offer:

• Generous benefits including health, dental, vision, and retirement plans.

• Paid time off, holidays, and flexible policies to support balance.

• Professional growth opportunities through training and development.

• The chance to own high-impact work that directly shapes the future of robotics & space!

• A collaborative, mission-driven culture where craftsmanship and innovation are celebrated.