Electric Propulsion Specialist
Long Beach · 5+ years experience · Full-time · Onsite · Posted Oct 12, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 5+ years experience
- Employment
- Full-time
- Workplace
- Onsite
- Location
- Long Beach
About the role
- Vast is looking for an Electric Propulsion Specialist, reporting to the Director of Production, to support the development of systems required for human-rated space stations.
- The role involves working hands-on in the lab to assemble, wire, and test electric propulsion hardware, from thrusters to high-voltage power and harnessing.
Responsibilities
- Fabricate, assemble, integrate, and test electric propulsion hardware, including thrusters, propellant feed components, power electronics, and test support equipment
- Build, inspect, and repair electrical harnesses and cable assemblies, including soldering, crimping, potting, splicing, lacing, and connector termination
- Safely work on high-voltage systems and equipment, following lockout/tagout, grounding, and other electrical safety practices
- Run, maintain, and troubleshoot vacuum chambers and pumping systems
- Set up and run thruster and component tests, including mounting hardware, routing instrumentation, checking out data acquisition systems, and monitoring tests
- Machine fixtures, brackets, adapters, and test hardware on manual and/or CNC mills and lathes from drawings or engineering sketches
- Diagnose electrical and mechanical problems using multimeters, hipot and insulation-resistance testers, oscilloscopes, and leak detectors
- Follow and help write work instructions, test procedures, and build travelers, and record as-built configurations and any non-conformances accurately
- Keep the lab, tooling, and test areas clean, organized, and safe, including inventory of consumables and spares
- Work with engineering, quality, and other technicians to feed manufacturing and test lessons back into design
Requirements
- 5+ years of hands-on experience as an electrical, electromechanical, or test technician in aerospace, defense, research, or a similar high-reliability industry (or equivalent military experience)
- Demonstrated experience building wire harnesses and cable assemblies, including soldering, crimping, and connector termination
- Experience working safely on high-voltage systems or equipment
- Machining experience on manual and/or CNC mills and lathes
Preferred qualifications
- Experience operating and maintaining high-vacuum systems, including roughing pumps, turbomolecular pumps, diffusion pumps, and/or cryopumps
- Experience with helium leak detection, vacuum gauges, and vacuum fittings (KF, CF, ISO)
- Experience with electric propulsion systems (Hall-effect, gridded ion, or similar) or plasma/high-voltage lab equipment
- Welding experience (TIG preferred), especially on stainless steel or thin-walled tubing
- Current IPC/WHMA-A-620, J-STD-001 (including Space Addendum), and/or NASA-STD-8739 certification
- Experience with precision cleaning, cleanroom work, or contamination control for flight hardware
- Experience with propellant feed systems, including tube bending, fittings, and pressure/leak testing
- Ability to read and interpret electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and mechanical drawings, including GD&T
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents
- Generous paid time off
- Paid parental leave
- Short and long-term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Access to a 401(k) retirement plan
- ClassPass credits
- Personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health
- Food perks with snacks, drip coffee, onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals free of charge
- Subsidized lunch
Workplace
- Ability to travel up to [10]% of the time to support testing at vendor or external facilities
Skills
- CNC Mills
- Lathes
- Multimeters
- Oscilloscopes
- Leak Detectors
- Vacuum Chambers
- GD&T
