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Turbomachinery Mechanical Design Engineer

Long Beach, CA

About Orbital Operations

At Orbital Operations, we’re building the future of dynamic space maneuvering. Our mission is to enable rapid-response orbital capabilities, executing maneuvers without hesitation and without regret.

Our flagship technology, the Cryogenic Propulsion Management System (CPMS), is redefining what’s possible in space mobility. Designed for military and commercial spacecraft, CPMS delivers sustained, high-thrust maneuverability in geosynchronous and cislunar orbits. It integrates low-loss cryogenic storage, reverse Brayton cycle (RBC) thermal control, and turbomachinery-driven propulsion to make spacecraft more agile, resilient, and responsive.

Beyond defense, CPMS is poised to transform commercial orbital logistics. By powering next-generation orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs), it can slash LEO-to-GEO transit times from six months to just eight hours—unlocking new possibilities for satellite servicing, deployment, and beyond.

Join us in building the infrastructure for a more maneuverable and mission-ready space domain.

About the Role

We are looking for a Turbomachinery Mechanical Design Engineer to help develop the high-performance pumps, turbines, and rotating assemblies that power our cryogenic propulsion system. You will work across the full hardware lifecycle from early architecture trades and detailed mechanical design through manufacturing, assembly, and testing. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for an engineer who thrives in a fast-paced environment and wants to turn ambitious turbomachinery concepts into reliable, flight-ready hardware.

Responsibilities

  • Own turbomachinery hardware from initial requirements and architecture trades through detailed design, manufacturing, assembly, test, and flight qualification.
  • Develop detailed component designs, drawings, interface definitions, tolerance analyses, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) for rotating and stationary hardware.
  • Perform or coordinate structural, thermal, rotordynamic, fluid, and life analyses to validate designs across operating and transient conditions.
  • Work closely with propulsion, fluids, manufacturing, test, and avionics teams to define interfaces and ensure successful integration into the complete engine system.
  • Define component and assembly-level test objectives, instrumentation requirements, acceptance criteria, and data-review processes.
  • Support component and assembly testing and data review on an as-needed basis

Required Qualifications

  • Minimum of a B.S. degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering.
  • 2+ years’ experience in turbomachinery design and development with 5+ years’ experience in an engineering discipline. 
  • 2+ years’ experience working with CAD software, preferably Siemens NX
  • Comfortable working in fast-paced, startup environment.
  • Demonstrated experience taking complex mechanical hardware through design, fabrication, assembly, and test.
  • Strong understanding of mechanical design fundamentals, including fits and tolerances, bolted joints, fatigue, fracture, thermal growth, and high-speed rotating machinery.
  • Experience creating production-quality engineering drawings using GD&T in accordance with ASME Y14.5.
  • Working knowledge of metallic materials, coatings, heat treatments, and manufacturing processes used in turbomachinery.

Nice to Haves

  • Significant experience / technical expertise in one or more of the following areas:
  • Rotor dynamics; balancing fundamentals
  • Turbine stage aero-mechanical design  
  • Hydrodynamic design of pumps/inducers/etc.
  • Turbomachinery detailed layout and design
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Experience in Turbomachinery related analysis software(s)

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