Mechanisms Flight Assurance Engineer

The role

The Flight Assurance Engineer executes mechanisms-specific flight assurance processes to ensure product reliability and compliance. This role owns design, manufacturing, test, and integration related assurance activities for flight hardware.

What you will do

• Execute flight assurance methods, plans, and processes across the mechanisms development and production lifecycle
• Conduct independent inspections at defined hold points for high-complexity mechanisms
• Review and approve assembly work instructions and test procedures
• Track qualification and verification of mechanisms through assurance processes
• Execute mechanisms buyoff at assembly, test, and integration stages
• Own the nonconformance register and lead root cause investigations for mechanisms anomalies
• Prepare and maintain assurance documentation including plans, risk mitigation, and compliance reports
• Conduct or coordinate vendor surveillance activities for flight-critical mechanism suppliers
• Track in-family data trends across the mechanisms fleet and spacecraft production line
• Maintain the mechanisms-specific lessons learned register

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related discipline
• 3+ years in flight/mission assurance, quality engineering, or reliability engineering with direct involvement in aerospace hardware
• Demonstrated experience with mechanical system anomaly investigation, nonconformance disposition, and qualification test witnessing
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organizational and subsystem-level project management abilities
• Demonstrated capability to represent Flight Assurance independently in design reviews and test environments
• Detail-oriented, analytical mindset with electromechanical system failure mode intuition and strong problem-solving skills
• MS Office Suite
• Risk and reliability analysis tools
• PLM or document control systems (e.g., Windchill, Autodesk PLM, Jira)
• CAD viewing tools (CATIA, SolidWorks, or equivalent) for drawing and model review
• Regular support in cleanroom, lab, and manufacturing environments required; ESD and contamination control protocol compliance mandatory

Nice to have

• Working knowledge of mechanisms-specific standards: AIAA S-114, ECSS-E-ST-33-01C, NASA-HDBK-7005, NASA-STD-5017, NASA-STD-5001, MIL-STD-1540
• Experience with high-volume production environment at monthly launch cadence
• Direct experience with flight spacecraft mechanisms
• Experience with reliability analysis tools or systems engineering tools
• Hands-on involvement in TVAC, vibration, shock, or life testing of mechanical flight hardware
• Familiarity with control requirements and limited-life item tracking for mechanical components
• Data analysis or visualization tools

About the company

AST SpaceMobile and its global partners are building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network to be accessible by standard smartphones.