System Safety Engineer

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us. Vast is looking for a Design Reliability Engineer, reporting to the Director of Design Reliability, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. Responsibilities:  * Technical Leadership: Lead the technical reviews that shape the future of artificial-gravity space habitats—providing clear, decisive guidance during milestone design reviews and major risk gates. * Oversee qualification and test completeness for flight systems, ensuring our test campaigns are robust, disciplined, and aligned with human-rated reliability. * Bring deep engineering intuition to test campaigns, identifying risks early and helping teams converge on safe, resilient solutions. * Evaluate complex design and operational changes, safeguarding technical integrity as the system evolves. * Design Excellence: Serve as the architect and guardian of Vast’s engineering standards, design guides, and review frameworks—tools that enable fast, confident decision-making across the company. * Make engineering best practices accessible and actionable, especially for engineers moving rapidly under ambitious program timelines. * Support and elevate engineering teams across the organization by bringing broad experience in design, build cycles, integration, and test. * Turn organizational knowledge into lasting guidance by capturing lessons learned and strengthening future standards. * Process Ownership: Build and steward the processes that ensure engineering rigor at scale—ensuring designs meet standards, reviews are comprehensive, and changes are consistently implemented. * Own and continuously refine design review templates, reliability checklists, and internal design guides. * Track design maturity and compliance across the station and vehicle architecture, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. * Build tools, frameworks, and automation that empower engineers to explore design trade-offs and risks with clarity and speed. * Cross-Functional Influence: Work across all facets of the engineering organization to improve reliability. * Partner with configuration and change management so that every update to flight hardware is intentional, reviewed, and fully understood. * Partner with the internal software team to ensure system data, configuration details, and design decisions are well organized and accessible. Minimum Qualifications: * Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field. * 7+ years of experience in responsible engineering, design ownership, systems integration, test engineering, or reliability-focused development. * Demonstrated experience conducting design reviews, qualification reviews, or major change assessments. * Strong communicator and collaborative leader with high emotional intelligence, diplomacy, and the ability to influence at all levels. * Resilient, curious, and committed to continuous learning in fast-paced or high-pressure environments. Preferred Skills & Experience: * Experience in Responsible Engineering, Systems Engineering, Office of the Chief Engineer, or Reliability Engineering roles on complex aerospace systems. * Hands-on experience designing, assembling, integrating, or testing hardware. * Background with spacecraft, aircraft, launch vehicles, or other mission- or safety-critical systems. * Familiarity with fracture control, reliability methodologies, or human-rated hardware standards. * Experience creating engineering standards, review templates, or technical guidance frameworks. * Strong scripting and data analysis skills (Python, MATLAB, Excel) and familiarity with visualization tools (e.g., Tableau). * Knowledge of manufacturing processes, materials selection, and hardware qualification pathways. * Strong systems-level intuition and the ability to anticipate and articulate risks early. Additional Requirements: * Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones. Pay Range: California $137,000—$195,000 USD COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually, 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, and other discounts and perks. We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees. U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-22/section-120.62] or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us. Vast is looking for an Environmental Health & Safety Sr. Specialist reporting to the Environmental Health & Safety Manager, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. This role is a full-time, exempt position at our Long Beach location focused on serving as a "boots on the ground" safety leader, managing site-specific EHS programs, and conducting investigations, and participating in or leading complex EHS program development. Join Vast as an EHS Sr. Specialist and build the safety foundation for our next-generation space stations. You’ll be instrumental in shaping our safety culture, overseeing manufacturing and test safety, and managing complex aerospace hazards. If you are a hands-on safety leader who thrives on building programs from the ground up, this is your opportunity to define the standards for a growing aerospace team. Responsibilities:  * EHS Operations & Compliance: * Actively represent the EHS Department and collaborate with all company departments in the implementation and upkeep of EHS standards and policies. * Oversee compliance with regulatory mandates from CAL OSHA, RCRA, EPA, SCAQMD, DOT, DTSC, and CUPA. * Maintain consistent communication with Operations and Facilities Teams about site projects that may impact EHS related planning and permits. * Maintain and report accurate chemical inventories via CERS to ensure full CUPA compliance. * Lead environmental quarterly reporting (EvQ), tracking metrics for waste, air, and water compliance. * Manage Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) implementation, monitoring, and training requirements for the Long Beach facility. * Oversee Industrial Wastewater (IWW) discharge permit compliance, including required sampling and reporting to local agencies. * Actively collaborate with Operations and Manufacturing teams across all sites to manage safety needs as production ramps up. Proactively identify hazards associated with new equipment and processes to ensure compliance remains ahead of production growth. * Lead the continuous improvement of the EHS record-keeping system (e.g., Jira/SMS) to improve reporting accuracy and data integrity. * Inspections and Audits: * Conduct various inspections (e.g., portable fire extinguishers, eye wash/shower stations, emergency lighting/exits, fall protection equipment, lifting straps/slings) and work area audits ensuring review and communication of corrective/preventative actions with area owners. * Lead complex compliance and program audits. Develop and maintain EHS standards and procedures for specialized areas (e.g., laboratory compliance, non-operational safety). Train other employees on auditing protocols to drive continuous improvement. * Waste & Materials Management: * Manage tasks related to the handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste under RCRA LQG regulations. * Manage Large Quantity Generator hazardous waste storage areas, including weekly inspections, proper storage, labeling, drum log, and housekeeping. * Maintain necessary record keeping, including Uniform Hazardous & NON Hazardous Waste Manifests, Bill of Ladings, and hazardous waste profiles. * Segregate and loose pack expired materials based on hazardous characteristics and types of waste. * Order and maintain adequate spill supplies (pads, drums, secondary containment) and safety supplies (PPE, Fall Protection, LOTO, monitoring/testing equipment). * Prepare and submit annual/biennial hazardous waste reports, including SB-14 Performance Reports. * Manage comprehensive RCRA waste tracking, including manifest reconciliation, biennial reporting, and waste stream profiling. * Incident Management & Investigation: Contribute to the investigation of workplace accidents and injuries to determine root cause and identify corrective actions. * Provide critical support and technical context to EHS Engineers during serious incident investigations. * EHS Program Development and Technical Support: * Lead the completion of drafting and posting of Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) procedures, updating equipment inventory. * Support in review and approval of Job Hazard Analyses (JHAs) as assigned, ensuring compliance and best practices. * Conduct and/or coordinate specialized employee EH&S training programs (e.g., Crane and Hoist, LOTO, Confined Space Entry). * Mentorship & Development: * Provide informal mentorship and on-the-job training to EHS Specialist I/II and EHS Program Coordinator personnel. Assist in the professional development of the team and support the EHS Manager in elevating team performance. Minimum Qualifications: * High School Diploma. * 4+ years of experience implementing and overseeing aspects related to an environmental, health and safety program. Preferred Skills & Experience: * Proven background in understanding, implementing, and formulating health and safety plans and policies. * Hands-on involvement with emergency response teams in incidents involving hazardous and non-hazardous material releases into the air, soil, and water. * Experience in overseeing Hazardous Waste storage and satellite accumulation areas. * Comfortable stopping work or elevating concerns to individuals, teams, &/or supervisors * Proficiency in Google Workspace and MS Office Suite/Windows operating systems and applications. * Comfortable working within a construction or industrial setting, including a fast-paced and demanding start-up atmosphere. Additional Requirements: * Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones. * Ability to lift up to 50 lbs unassisted. * Must be able to wear required personal protective equipment (PPE), including respirators (tight or loose fitting), safety toe shoes, hearing protection, and safety glasses. * Ability to obtain certification for Powered Industrial Trucks and Mobile Elevated Work Platforms. * Ability to travel up to 25% of the time to support EHS functions across Vast locations, including Long Beach, Hawthorne, and the Mojave Test Site. Pay Range: California $106,000—$151,000 USD COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually, 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, and other discounts and perks. We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees. U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-22/section-120.62] or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.