Principal Mechanical Engineer

Job description

Here at The Exploration Company, we are developing, producing, and operating Nyx, a modular and reusable space orbital vehicle that can eventually be refuelled in orbit and that can carry cargo - and potentially humans in the longer run. We are looking for a Principal Mechanical Engineer, to lead the Mechanical Engineering discipline for Nyx Earth, ensuring that mechanical systems are robust, justified, verified, and ready for flight. As a Principal you will manage a team of Mechanical Engineers, drive structural design and verification activities, and ensure technical excellence across structural analysis, testing, qualification, and verification. You will coordinate your work with the Principal CAD Engineer and with the Vehicle Mechanical Architect, under the guidance of the Mechanical Design Lead. You will play a key role in enabling the successful development of one of Europe's most ambitious space vehicles. Key Responsibilities Lead the Mechanical Engineering team, defining priorities, supporting growth, and ensuring engineering excellence and delivery. Support and collaborate to the mechanical design of the spacecraft and its major assemblies, ensuring structurally efficient, robust, manufacturable, and verifiable design solutions throughout the development lifecycle. Provide technical leadership on the design of primary and secondary structures, large assemblies, equipment supports, and critical mechanical interfaces, ensuring consistency between design intent, structural justification, and verification strategy. Own structural justification activities across the spacecraft, ensuring consistency of assumptions, margins, analyses, and engineering evidence. Coordinate structural analyses and mechanical verification activities, with focus on test strategy and execution, from test definition and prediction to result interpretation and model correlation, ensuring results are coherent, traceable, and aligned with programme objectives. Ensure verification evidence generated through testing and analysis is robust, review-ready, and suitable for qualification and certification activities towards space agencies. Drive technical reviews, risk identification, and engineering maturity assessments to ensure readiness for major programme milestones. Act as a hands-on technical leader, actively contributing to engineering decisions, test campaigns, anomaly investiga…