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Director of Engineering, Accurate Landing

Playa Vista, California, United States

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode - horse drawn carriage, ocean faring boats, or aircraft. These were spurred by a small group of people rigorously focused on building technology to achieve faster access to more of the world.  We seek to usher in a new era of humanity defined by universal access to the whole globe free of borders and the presence of a routine way from space to Earth. To do this, we are building highly maneuverable re-entry vehicles that can loiter in orbit before precision landing back on Earth.   

What You’ll Do:

As the head of Inversion’s Accurate Landing teams, you will spearhead the creation, design, and leadership of one of Inversion’s most innovative capabilities: the technology behind autonomously and accurately landing a spacecraft anywhere on Earth. Inversion’s spacecraft are capable of fully autonomously landing anywhere and in any environment with pinpoint accuracy. You will own the technical development of the software stack, sensor and electrical design, GNC systems, and parachute and recovery hardware from conceptual design to continuous testing and deployment onto production vehicles. In this role, you will:

  • Report directly to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
  • Lead technical and programmatic architecture and execution of the Accurate Landing systems on Inversion’s Arc vehicle.
  • Assemble an incredibly talent-dense team of engineers to design, build, test, and produce controllable parachute systems, computer vision systems, and complex GNC algorithms.
  • Integrate and coordinate the integration of your team’s systems into Inversion’s vehicle(s).
  • Implement your vision for what you deem the “art of the possible” in a company that’s constructing an autonomy-enabled space transportation layer.

Required Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Software, Electrical, or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent experience in a relevant field with a minimum of 10+ years of engineering complex systems.
  • Industry leadership experience managing interdisciplinary teams and responsibility over program-level technical decision-making.
  • Proven experience rapidly deploying and iterating products while in highly regulated industries.
  • Successful track record of taking projects from design through deployment into production.
  • Strong ability to translate customer requirements into highly reliable engineering outcomes.

Desired Qualifications:

  • Industry experience in aerospace or aviation.
  • Experience developing aerospace-grade mechanical systems such as mechanisms, sensor housings, motor development, etc.
  • Experience building embedded software for autonomous robotic systems including Linux, C, C++, and/or Rust.
  • Prior work in robotics; state-estimation; guidance navigation, and control (GNC); computer vision (CV); or sensor fusion.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret clearance.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $175,000-$276,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity. 

 

ITAR Compliance:
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you 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 the ITAR here.  
 
Equal Employment Opportunity:
Inversion provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, or disability.  
 
Inversion collects and processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.  If you are a US Job Applicant see the CCPA Privacy Policy Notice for further details.

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