Mechanical Engineer

Dispatch builds reentry vehicles for in-space manufacturing. Compatible with most launch vehicles, we host production in microgravity, and return the product to Earth. First customers are semiconductor companies growing crystals better than anything manufacturable on the ground.

We are constructing the infrastructure that allows the space economy to scale. From the reliable return of biological samples to the mass production of next-gen semiconductors, Dispatch provides the power, the platform, and the path home.

About The Role

You'll be our first mechanical engineer for Dispatch’s reusable reentry vehicles designed for mass manufacturing and the person responsible for turning a heat shield and avionics stack into a flying spacecraft. This is a founding role - you'll own the structural design, mechanisms, and integration of our reentry vehicle from CAD to qualification testing to launch.

At our stage, this means you're doing the analysis and the hands-on build. You'll work directly with both founders on a daily basis. Both founders are ex-Astranis - Andrew led the avionics team, Payton was chief engineer on their next-gen satellite line.

Responsibilities

• Design the primary vehicle structure (load paths, interfaces, payload volume)

• Own mechanical systems: deployment mechanisms, recovery/parachute systems, payload integration hardware

• Run structural analysis (FEA) for launch and reentry load environments

• Produce engineering drawings with GD&T for fabricated and machined parts

• Build and test prototype hardware

• Support environmental qualification testing (vibration, thermal vacuum)

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years designing and building flight hardware (spacecraft, launch vehicles, hypersonics, or missiles)

• Strong mechanical design skills: structures, mechanisms, packaging in constrained volumes

• Proficiency in CAD (SOLIDWORKS or similar) and FEA tools (Femap or similar)

• Hands-on prototyping experience - you've machined, assembled, and tested your own designs

• Comfortable working across disciplines at an early-stage company

Nice to Have

• Experience with reentry vehicles, capsule structures, or high-load environments

• Recovery system design (parachutes, airbags, flotation)

• Familiarity with rideshare mechanical interface standards (ESPA, Exolaunch deployers)

• Thermal protection system integration experience

Dispatch is building an autonomous reentry vehicle in house. The key technical challenge is making reentry cheap and repeatable; We do this with a proprietary heat shield made from industrial ceramics that costs 1% of traditional thermal protection systems.

We build the full satellite in house. The vehicle is designed for reuse - the heat shield is the primary consumable, replaceable in a 2-week turnaround.

You'll see your work in orbit within 12 months. If surviving Mach 20 reentry, iterating on flight hardware in days instead of years, and building the physical layer of the space economy sounds like your kind of fun, we should talk.

• 15-30 min phone intro with CEO
• 1 Hour phone deep dive with CTO
• 1 Hour in person with CEO