Back to jobs
New

Spring 2027 Internship - Engineering

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

At Orbital Operations, we believe bold missions demand exceptional builders. We’re assembling a world-class team to push the boundaries of dynamic space maneuvering, and we’re looking for engineering interns who have already demonstrated that they can take real hardware from an idea to a tested result.

This is not an internship where you’ll spend the your time observing from the sidelines or working on isolated analysis. You’ll own a meaningful hardware project with a clear technical objective and be responsible for driving it through execution. Depending on the project, that may include defining requirements, performing analysis, designing components, creating drawings, working with vendors or manufacturing equipment, assembling hardware, developing test plans, running tests, analyzing results, troubleshooting failures, and implementing the next iteration.

You’ll be paired with a dedicated mentor, but you’ll be expected to take initiative, make sound engineering decisions, communicate blockers, and keep your project moving. You’ll work directly alongside engineers across design, analysis, manufacturing, test, and operations while contributing to hardware that supports our cryogenic propulsion and orbital mobility systems.

We are specifically looking for interns who have previously owned hardware through most or all of its lifecycle. That experience may come from a student engineering team, research laboratory, previous internship, personal project, machine shop, startup, or other hands-on environment. The scale of the project matters less than the depth of your ownership.

Strong candidates can clearly explain:

  • What they personally owned and delivered
  • How they translated a need into engineering requirements
  • Which design decisions and tradeoffs they made
  • How the hardware was manufactured and assembled
  • How they tested it and determined whether it worked
  • What failed, what they learned, and what they changed
  • What they would do differently on the next iteration

Internship opportunities are available across our engineering teams, including:

  • Mechanical Design
  • Fluid Systems Design and Analysis
  • Test and Integration
  • Manufacturing and Assembly
  • Avionics

If you want to be judged by the hardware you deliver and are ready to take a project from concept through test we’d love to hear from you.

Qualifications

  • Currently pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related STEM field
  • Demonstrated ownership of at least one hands on engineering project from concept or requirements through fabrication, assembly, testing, and iteration
  • Strong command of engineering fundamentals and the ability to apply them to practical, open ended problems
  • Experience designing, building, integrating, or testing physical hardware through a student team, internship, research program, employment, or personal project
  • Ability to make engineering tradeoffs and move forward when requirements or information are incomplete
  • Willingness to work directly with hardware, including assembly, instrumentation, troubleshooting, and test operations
  • Ability to independently plan and execute a complex technical project while identifying and communicating risks and blockers
  • Resourceful, self-directed, and comfortable learning unfamiliar tools or technical subjects quickly
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document designs, test results, failures, and lessons learned
  • Able to work full-time and onsite in Long Beach, California, for a minimum of 10–12 consecutive weeks

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with CAD, engineering drawings, tolerance analysis, machining, additive manufacturing, composite fabrication, electronics, instrumentation, or fluid-system assembly
  • Experience creating and executing test plans, collecting data, and comparing results against analytical predictions or requirements
  • Participation in a hands-on engineering organization such as Formula SAE, Baja SAE, liquid or solid rocketry, CubeSat, robotics, Design/Build/Fly, or a similar project team
  • A portfolio, technical report, project page, or other work sample that clearly demonstrates your individual contribution to completed hardware
  • Experience diagnosing a hardware failure and carrying the resulting lessons into a successful design iteration

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Orbital Operations’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 07/31/2029

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.

We use Greenhouse’s AI-powered Talent Matching tool to compare your application against our job requirements.

Learn more