Director Vice President Jobs in Spring, TX (NOW HIRING)

Director / VP of Engineering

Orbital Arc Corporation | Houston, TX (On-site) | Full-Time | Relocation Support Available

About Orbital Arc

Orbital Arc Corporation is a Houston-based space startup developing next-generation electric propulsion thrusters for spacecraft that is ~1/8th the mass, much lower cost, and offers significantly better performance on lower cost fuels than competing Hall Thruster technology. We are moving from early development into productization and flight tests, and we are building the engineering team that will carry our hardware from the lab to orbit. The company recently completed Pre-seed fundraising, and is now focused on growth and technical maturation, hiring our first full-time employees.

The Role

We are seeking a Director or VP of Engineering to lead our engineering team through the completion of thruster development and the transition to a flight-qualified, production-ready product. This is a true player-coach role: you will lead and grow a team of engineers while personally owning significant portions of the engineering work until the team is fully built out.

You will set the technical and cultural tone for the company — instilling structure, efficiency, and disciplined engineering practices, and fostering a culture of calm competence where hard problems get solved quickly, methodically, and well.

What You'll Do

• Be Employee #3. You will directly and meaningfully shape the growth and success of the company and will have a significant voice in defining what we build and how.

• Interview, select, hire, train, and lead the engineering team.

• Mature and guide our development program through the completion of thruster development, qualification, and productization, targeting progress from TRL 3 to TRL 6 hardware during this phase.

• Collaborate directly with the CEO on design requirements and design optimization across performance, mass, and manufacturability.

• Personally own and execute engineering work in your area of depth (e.g., electrical, thermal, fluid systems, or general aerospace engineering) until the team has fully grown.

• Mentor, train, and develop onboarded engineers, raising the technical bar across the team.

• Establish and enforce engineering processes, documentation standards, design reviews, and best practices appropriate for flight hardware.

• Instill structure, efficiency, and sound engineering discipline throughout the company.

• Foster a culture of calm competence — rigorous, low-drama execution under startup pace and pressure.

• Plan and drive test, integration, and flight qualification campaigns.

• Work hands-on within an EAR/ITAR-regulated environment and help maintain compliance in day-to-day engineering practice.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years of relevant experience in the space industry.

• Prior space startup experience taking hardware from the drawing board to a finished, tested, flight-qualified product operating in space with constrained budgets, timelines, and resources.

• Deep hands-on expertise in one or more of: electrical engineering, thermal engineering, fluid systems engineering, or general aerospace engineering.

• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and grow engineering teams

• Demonstrated ability to produce flight hardware as a hands-on individual contributor.

• Track record of establishing engineering processes, discipline, and best practices in a growing organization.

• Familiarity with working in an EAR/ITAR-regulated environment.

• U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident (required for compliance with U.S. export control regulations).

Highly Desired

• Direct experience with electric propulsion systems (e.g., Hall-effect, ion, or other EP technologies).

• Experience leading flight qualification, environmental test, and acceptance test campaigns.

• Experience scaling hardware from prototype to production.

• Advanced degree in engineering or a related technical field.

Compensation & Benefits

Title, salary, and equity balanced commensurate with experience. (~$100-$200k, ~0.5%-2%, either Director or VP title, depending on specifically relevant experience and aptitude.)

Benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance, unlimited flexible PTO, 401k with 5% company match, and parental leave (6 months fully paid for childbearing parent, 3 months fully paid for non-childbearing parent).

Relocation support to Houston, TX is available.

Location & Work Authorization

This is an in-person-first role based in Houston, TX, with employees primarily working in a company facility, and working from home only when physical presence is not required (and, as we are building a physical space hardware product, physical presence is usually required). Due to U.S. export control regulations (EAR/ITAR), applicants must be U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit a resume and a brief summary of flight hardware you have taken from concept through flight qualification and operation in space.

Orbital Arc Corporation is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Orbital Arc Corporation is an early-stage Houston-based space technology startup dedicated to developing the technology to open the solar system to human civilization. This starts with better propulsion systems; Orbital Arc is developing the world's first Gas Phase FEEP electric propulsion system, which should be ~1/8th the mass, ~1/3 the cost, and offer higher performance than any electric propulsion system in space today. When complete, this modular thruster architecture can enable low earth orbit constellations at scale, or deep space exploration and industrialization because lighter, more power dense thrusters change the math for delta-v.

Success is not guaranteed. Our technology is still in development, and still carries risk. We could fail. But, if we succeed, we can put orbital industry on an entirely new trajectory. An orbital arc, if you will.