Space industry work
Mechanical, Structures & Thermal
Measured from 334 distinct posted rates, across 26 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 469 of the 803 listings open here post no pay at all.
Live mechanical roles
Updated 30 Oct 2026, 06:01 UTC
Structural Engineer - Level 2/3 (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-California-Redondo Beach· today

Structural Engineer: Level 1 (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-Arizona-Chandler· today

Structural Engineer - Level 3 or Level 4 (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-Arizona-Gilbert· today

Northrop Grumman · United States-California-Redondo Beach· today

Structural Engineer - Level 5 (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-California-Redondo Beach· today

Structural Analyst Engineer - Level 2 (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-California-Commerce· today

Sr. Principal Optomechanical Engineer - 4 (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-Arizona-Chandler· today

Northrop Grumman · United States-California-Commerce· today

Mechanical Structural Engineer - Level 5 - Dulles (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-Virginia-Dulles· today

Aerodynamics Engineer (Aero-Stability & Control Analyst) (opens the job details)
Boeing · USA - Berkeley, MO· today


Principal Engineer Mechanical (AHT) (opens the job details)
Northrop Grumman · United States-Colorado-Aurora· today
Design and analyze the physical vehicle: primary structures and tanks, mechanisms and deployables, thermal control, materials and processes, loads and stress analysis, aerodynamics and reentry, and the ground support equipment that fuels and handles a vehicle on the pad.
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In short
Mechanical, Structures & Thermal. Design and analyze the physical vehicle: primary structures and tanks, mechanisms and deployables, thermal control, materials and processes, loads and stress analysis, aerodynamics and reentry, and the ground support equipment that fuels and handles a vehicle on the pad. The usual range is $110k–$216k/yr and the median $132k/yr, both taken from rates printed on postings that are live today. 19 employers hire for it, including Outpost, Inversion Space, Varda Space Industries.
Who hires for mechanical work
Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.
Our grading rules for pay figures
Weighing employers against each other? Line up mechanical pay at each employer using the pay explorer.
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What our research measures about mechanical work
Read from the open postings on 2026-10-29 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.
- Who is hiring793 open roles (9.7% of the space roles we read) at 37 employers, 154 of them posted in the last 30 days.
- Where the jobs are4.9% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
- Who can apply78.6% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 13.7% name a security clearance.
- Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Finite element analysis (46%), Ansys (38%) and GD&T (ASME Y14.5) (36%).
- Degrees and experience1.3% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 32.9% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 5 years of experience at the least.
- Pay transparency42.1% of the postings state their pay, at a median $132,000 a year.
- Internships and entry level77 open roles are for someone starting out (9.7% of its open roles).
- Shifts, weekends and travel19.4% of the postings ask for weekend work, 15.3% for overtime or extended hours, and 0.9% name an evening, night or rotating shift.
From the forum
Ask the people doing Mechanical work what only they can tell you.