Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-rich, and low-cost approach. Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station 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. 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 in 2027, followed by additional Haven modules. Additionally, the company recently announced Vast Satellite, a high-power satellite product line leveraging its space station components and the heritage of Haven Demo.

Headquartered in Long Beach, California, and with more than 1,000 employees and over a billion dollars in private capital, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats and systems for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.

Vast is seeking an Operations Engineer, reporting to the Manager, Operations Engineering, to design and optimize current and future manufacturing factories. In this role, you will apply your expertise to creatively design and bring to life the spaces that will build space stations and satellites. The scope of this team spans capacity planning, questioning requirements, first-principles thinking, process simplification, CAD modeling, dashboards and automated reporting, cross-functional leadership, creative problem solving, and ramping production rate.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Responsibilities

Design and own factory and production area layouts, maintaining up-to-date floor plans and work center configurations with clear visual indicators and linear flow as guiding principles
Lead future-state factory design and capacity planning to meet rate production requirements as the program scales, partnering closely with stakeholders to ensure business objectives are met
Partner with area owners to evaluate layout options and space trades, challenging footprint assumptions and right-sizing work centers through an iterative design process that evolves with the program
Host regular process walks of production lines, questioning workflow to identify what can be deleted, simplified, or standardized, determining root causes of operational challenges, and driving those changes to completion
Drive process standardization across products, assemblies, and work centers to reduce variability and capture best practices and lessons learned to build the operational foundation required for sustainable rate scaling
Develop dashboards and automated reporting tools that turn production and operations data into clear, actionable insights on throughput, capacity, and delivery
Define and track operational metrics that quantify the health of the production system, and use them to drive efficiency improvements
Execute complex projects with urgency, minimizing time and cost to the business — get hands-on, lead by example, and get things done

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, or related engineering discipline
1+ years of professional or internship experience in a manufacturing environment

Preferred Qualifications

Experience as an industrial, operations, or manufacturing engineer in a fast-paced developmental or early production manufacturing environment, with exposure to ramping from development through rate production
Demonstrated experience in factory layout design, capacity modeling, and process mapping
Proficiency in CAD tools for layout and workspace design (e.g. SketchUp, AutoCAD, or equivalent)
Experience building dashboards or automated reports from production or operations data using tools such as Grafana, Tableau, Excel, SQL, and Python