Space Jobs for Technicians in the Santa Maria Area

Today, SpaceX (8 roles), Amentum (4 roles), CACI (1 role), L3Harris (1 role), Lockheed Martin (1 role), Northrop Grumman (1 role). The table above lists every employer with a role open in the Santa Maria area.

Most are in Vandenberg (15), Lompoc (1), as the postings name their sites. A role that names several sites counts at each.

The roles here that state pay post a median $67.9k/yr, with typical pay from $67.2k–$118k/yr; 91.8% of California's postings state their pay at all, which our research on where space jobs are compares state by state. California's law has required employers with 15 or more employees to state a pay range in job postings since 1 Jan 2023 (each state's law beside its postings). For reference, the 1,600 aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians working in California, in any industry, earn a median $99k/yr (BLS, May 2025, the public record).

Of the 3,014 space postings in California whose text we read, 79.6% are limited to US citizens or US persons and 23.5% name a security clearance, by our research on who can apply, which compares every state. Each posting states its own rule, often citing export control under ITAR or the EAR.

We read each employer's own job board every hour. A role is listed here when it is a US role and its own location line names a place in the Santa Maria area (the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA metropolitan statistical area as the Census Bureau draws it: Santa Barbara County), by the same reading as our research on where space jobs are, and its title names the profession by the same rule as the page for technicians; remote roles that name no state are on the remote jobs page.