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Job Description

Overview

Varda is a company focused on developing commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. They are seeking a motivated Structures Engineer to support the design, analysis, testing, and integration of structural components for their spaceflight systems and reentry vehicles.

Responsibilities

  • Derive hardware requirements and perform initial design trades based on problem statements and stakeholder input.
  • Evaluate the impact of hardware design decisions on packaging, thermal, environmental, and loads.
  • Own all aspects of hardware delivery, both technical and administrative.
  • Use hand calculations, finite element analyses, and CAD to ensure hardware meets requirements.
  • Design and execute development and qualification testing.
  • Develop tooling to support hardware integration and testing.

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline with 1+ years of experience in related applications.
  • Strong first principles thinking with an understanding of structural design, analysis, and test.
  • Ability to perform structural analyses to demonstrate design compliance.
  • Familiarity with 3D CAD software, ideally NX.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Eagerness to learn and work on hands-on hardware projects.
  • Excitement about making history in the space and pharmaceutical industries.

Additional Information

  • This is a full-time, exempt position located at the El Segundo headquarters.
  • The role is on-site in El Segundo, CA.
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How this job compares in El Segundo, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $69/hr, this posting sits about 49% above the $46/hr median for welding jobs in El Segundo, CA — toward the top of a $38–$65/hr middle band drawn from 21 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 76% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. Pay that far above local median usually comes attached to something: a harder cert requirement, travel, night shift, or overtime that isn't really optional. Worth establishing which before you accept.

The local market in El Segundo, CA

We're tracking 25 other active welding openings in El Segundo, CA right now, from 13 different employers. 20 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 594 other active welding openings from 272 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in El Segundo, or widen the search to California.

Varda Space Industries currently has 5 other openings live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (37), Welding Shop in Los Angeles, CA (17), and Honeywell Aerospace (16). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Pasadena at $51/hr, Santa Ana at $48/hr, and Torrance at $47/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Similar openings near El Segundo, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Structures Engineer figures were last recalculated when this page was built.