Electromechanical Actuator Engineer
STOKE Space Technologies
A thriving economy in space is needed to make life on Earth more vibrant, sustainable, and equitable. Space technology will enable global access to information, solutions to climate change, answers to global food security, products that transform healthcare, clean energy production, and more. Today, rocket launch options are slow, expensive, and unreliable. Stoke is building the world’s most efficient fully and rapidly reusable rocket designed to fly daily that will radically increase access to space and open up the space economy to safeguard our precious home, Earth.
Description
The electromechanical actuation systems are fundamental to the success of highly reusable, operable, and reliable space systems. As an Electromechanical Engineer at an early-stage start-up you will be responsible for designing, testing, and qualifying electro-mechanical actuators utilized for primary flight controls of the NOVA launch vehicle including Thrust Vector Control (TVC) and Engine Throttle Valve actuators.
You will work closely with the engines, fluids, avionics, and production teams to seek out state-of-the-art solutions to difficult problems, develop and own the company standards for actuator design, test them to their limits and iterate until making actuators one of our core competencies!
Responsibilities
- Designing, testing, and qualifying electro-mechanical actuators utilized for primary flight controls of the NOVA launch vehicle including Thrust Vector Control (TVC) and Engine Throttle Valve Servos
- Drive designs through concept, prototyping, testing, and production release life cycle
- Collaborating with valve and engines design teams to define sizing and performance requirements based on loads, rates and redundancy requirements
- Performing trade studies of actuation approaches for electromechanical mechanisms
- Selection and sizing of related components such as electric motors, controllers, position encoders, gears, ball screw assemblies, bearings (rollers, needle, tapered, etc.), and fasteners
- Collaborate with Electrical Design engineer to define, design, manufacture, and test control electronics
- Perform tolerance stackups, hand stress and kinematic calculations, motor and gear-train analysis, FEA, and CAD to ensure all hardware meets or exceeds system requirements
- Perform Design for Manufacturability (DFM) on your designs and work with manufacturing to refine
- Write and execute build, acceptance, qualification, and system test procedures
- Coordinate and manage supply chain
- Lead anomaly and failure investigations to identify root cause and resolution
- Basic fabrication, machining, wiring, general electronics, debugging, and parts chasing
- Support test and launch operations
Qualifications
- 3 years minimum experience designing, building, or testing electromechanical actuators or similar
- B.S. degree in Mechanical, Mechatronic, or Aerospace Engineering or equivalent
Preferred Qualifications
- Demonstrated successful experience in electromechanical engineering product development
- Experience qualifying hardware for launch vehicle environments (SMC-S-016, MIL-STD-810)
- Extensive experience with CAD tools and configuration management (Siemens NX and Teamcenter preferred)
- Proficiency in GD&T, tolerance stackups, and material selection
- Hands on experience performing fabrication and assembly of components
- Experience with torque and force sensing technologies and instrumentation
- Experience with thermal analysis and design
- Familiarity with various electric motor, electric drive, and motion control technologies
- Basic first principles understanding of both mechanical and electrical common best practices for design
- Capable of writing software for test automation, data review, and design analysis
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Rigorous attention to detail
- Ability to lead
- Ability to follow
Benefits
- Medical, dental, vision and basic life insurance
- 401(k) match
- Paid time off
- Flexible scheduling
- Equity
Compensation
Target Levels:
- Level 2 Range: $104,500 - $141,400
- Level 3 Range: $123,000 - $184,400
- Level 4 Range: $144,100 - $240,100
Our job posts are intentionally written to attract a wide variety of experience levels, and we make decisions about the right fit on a per-candidate basis.
Your actual level and base salary will be decided based on your specific experience and skill level.
Equal Opportunity
The Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including with respect to disability and veteran status. It is committed to compliance with all equal opportunity laws, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and Title VII. It does not discriminate on the basis of nationality, race, citizenship, immigration status, or any other protected class when it comes to employment practices, including hiring.
Employment at the Company is contingent upon satisfactory completion of reference and background checks, and on your ability to prove your identity and authorization to work in the U.S. for the Company. Employees must comply with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services employment verification requirements, and, therefore, they must complete an Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 at the start of employment and re-verify authorization to work periodically.
Separate from this I-9 process, this position entails access to certain technology and technical data that is restricted under U.S. export control laws and regulations. Employment or continued employment may be conditioned on your legal authorization to work with or have access to export control materials as necessary to perform your job.
