Advanced Reentry Technologies
Who We Are:
Inversion is an aerospace and defense company pioneering advanced reentry technology to enable next-generation capabilities from space. By combining high-performance materials, precision aerodynamics, and mission-driven autonomy, Inversion is transforming reentry into an operational capability for an entirely new class of missions.
The company’s highly maneuverable reentry spacecraft, Arc, is designed for rapid global cargo delivery, hypersonic testing, and other national security missions that require precise, controlled flight through the atmosphere. Arc creates an entirely new transportation domain, unlocking unprecedented speed and global reach.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Inversion designs, manufactures, and integrates its spacecraft under one roof, enabling the company to move rapidly from concept to flight. The company is backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, with customers across the U.S. government and commercial space industry.
What You'll Do
As an Avionics Mechanical Engineer, you will report directly to the Manager of Arc Vehicle Avionics. You will design, build, and test the mechanical hardware that packages, protects, and integrates avionics systems on Inversion vehicles. You will develop secondary structures and electromechanical packaging for flight computers, power systems, radios, navigation sensors, remote I/O, harnessing, and other avionics hardware. Your work will include CAD design, drawings, analysis, manufacturing support, assembly, and environmental test execution. This is a hands-on, early-career engineering role. You will work closely with electrical, avionics, production, and vehicle-integration engineers to turn electronics into flight-ready hardware.
Key Responsibilities
- Design avionics enclosures, mounting brackets, trays, panels, sensor mounts, cable-routing features, and other secondary structures.
- Support packaging and installation of flight computers, power-distribution hardware, batteries, radios, navigation sensors, cameras, remote I/O, and associated harnessing.
- Produce engineering drawings, CAD models, BOMs, assembly instructions, and other release documentation.
- Design for mass, stiffness, thermal performance, vibration, shock, access, manufacturability, serviceability, and vehicle interfaces.
- Work with electrical engineers to define mechanical interfaces for connectors, harness routing, grounding, thermal paths, sensor placement, and board-level packaging.
- Support fabrication, machining, inspection, assembly, and integration of avionics hardware.
- Participate in fit checks, bench tests, vibration tests, thermal tests, and other environmental test activities.
- Coordinate with Production early to ensure designs are manufacturable, inspectable, and support the required build schedule.
- Support vehicle integration by maintaining clean interface definitions and resolving mechanical integration issues.
- Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/ Top Secret security clearance.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, a related field, or equivalent technical experience
- Typically 1+ years of internship, academic research, or professional experience developing hardware for aerospace, defense, or similarly demanding applications.
- Proficiency in 3D CAD software such as NX, CATIA, SolidWorks, Creo, or equivalent.
- Familiarity with creating mechanical drawings, assemblies, and bills of materials.
- Working knowledge of GD&T, tolerance stack-up, fasteners, materials, and standard manufacturing processes.
- Familiarity with mechanical design for vibration, shock, thermal environments, and basic structural loading.
- Hands-on experience building, assembling, testing, or troubleshooting mechanical or electromechanical hardware.
- Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience designing enclosures, electronics packaging, test fixtures, brackets, or secondary structures for aerospace, robotics, automotive, defense, or other hardware products.
- Experience with CNC-machined parts, sheet metal, additive manufacturing, composite parts, or related manufacturing processes.
- Familiarity with spacecraft, launch vehicle, or UAV flight phases and operations.
- Demonstrated technical execution through collegiate engineering teams (such as Formula SAE, rocket clubs, or robotics design groups).
- Prior internship experience in a fast-paced aerospace or robotics startup environment.
Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.
The California annual base salary for this role is currently $77,000 - $116,000. 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.