About the role

Muon seeks an Engineering Manager to lead a team of mechanical engineers who tailor Muon's spacecraft platforms to specific missions. Starting from our common platform building blocks, this team designs payload accommodations and mission-specific components, and carries each spacecraft's mechanical build through integration and environmental test.

This is a hands-on role, split roughly evenly between management and individual contribution: you'll manage and develop your team while staying technically engaged — contributing designs, running design reviews, unblocking the team, and setting the quality bar. The role reports to the Senior Manager of Spacecraft Structures & Missions.

This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of mechanical engineers customizing Muon's spacecraft platforms for specific missions; plan resourcing across concurrent missions and hire as the team scales
• Invest in developing early-career engineers through coaching, design feedback, and growth planning
• Own the mechanical deliverables for assigned missions — from requirements through design, build, integration, and environmental test — ensuring on-time, high-reliability delivery
• Stay hands-on: contribute designs, drawings, and analyses alongside the team, setting the standard you expect
• Work with mission formulation and systems teams to translate customer needs into robust flight hardware, reusing common platform components where possible and developing new ones where needed
• Set and uphold engineering standards for the team — factors of safety, make vs. buy, materials, PLM process, and documentation
• Run design reviews and test readiness reviews; collaborate on test plans consistent with each mission's risk posture and own the outcome of test campaigns
• Partner with avionics, systems, thermal, structural, and production teams to optimize designs for performance, reliability, and manufacturability

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing complex, integrated systems that operate in harsh environments (spacecraft, aviation, automotive, robotics, or similar)
• 2+ years managing or technically leading engineering teams
• Track record of delivering hardware products to the field
• Ability to move fluidly between hands-on engineering and team leadership in a fast-paced environment
• Proficiency in CAD for medium-to-large assembly design and management (SolidWorks preferred)
• Mastery of drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets; diligence with ECO/DCO processes
• Experience managing analysis products (structural, thermal) and incorporating results into design
• Excellent leadership, communication, and presentation skills
• B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering or related field

Nice-to-have Skills

• Experience managing or mentoring spacecraft design teams
• Experience running full environmental test campaigns (vibration, TVAC) on satellites or launch vehicles
• Experience with risk-management processes and matching risk tolerance to design requirements
• Project management experience: customer reviews, schedules, risk tracking
• Experience developing early-career engineers into independent contributors

Salary

The salary range for this role is $186,000 - $202,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.