Director of Hardware

About the role

As part of the first 100 employees at Albedo, you will lead the hardware engineering organization across approximately three to four teams of managers and ICs. You will own design margin discipline against design standards across thermal, structural, radiation, electrical, mass, and optical budgets, and make those margins routine rather than heroic. You will also drive the AIT build flow from primary mirror unit fabrication through bus-to-payload integration through environmental test, eliminating integration-stage discoveries that should have been caught analytically.

Responsibilities

• Lead the hardware engineering organization — opto-mechanical, structures, thermal, avionics — across approximately three to four teams of managers and ICs
• Own design margin discipline against design standards across thermal, structural, radiation, electrical, mass, and optical budgets, and make those margins routine rather than heroic
• Drive the AIT build flow from primary mirror unit fabrication through bus-to-payload integration through environmental test, eliminating the integration-stage discoveries that should have been caught analytically
• Set and defend make-vs-buy strategy: vertical integration where the physics is the moat, aggressive outsourcing of commodity, decisions documented and revisited
• Develop hardware engineering managers who can run their domains without requiring you in every technical decision
• Partner with the Director of Software, Systems Engineering, and program management to close the analytical loop between hardware design, flight telemetry, and the next build
• Engage directly in design reviews, anomaly investigations, and supplier technical assessments — operate in the system without becoming a bottleneck

Requirements

• Twelve-plus years in precision spaceflight hardware, with at least four leading hardware engineering managers
• Hands-on depth in opto-mechanical engineering, structural dynamics, or precision pointing systems — you have personally owned a precision payload or precision pointing chain end-to-end
• Track record of design margin discipline against NASA, MIL, or equivalent standards, with examples where your margin calls held up under flight conditions
• Demonstrated cross-disciplinary system reasoning: you think in budgets across optics, structures, thermal, GNC, mass, and power, and you can trace budget violations to root cause
• Experience leading hardware through environmental test campaigns and on-orbit anomaly resolution
• Real make-vs-buy decisions you have owned and can defend with cost, schedule, and capability data
• Comfort holding a schedule against pressure when the analysis demands it, and yielding when the analysis says you can

Qualifications

• Employee friendly equity compensation
• 4% direct matching 401k
• Health Insurance: 100% employee coverage & 75% dependent coverage
• Parental leave and childcare coverage
• Flexible vacation and sick time from day one
• 12 company holidays
• $100 monthly wellness benefit
• Relocation package if not based in Denver

Skills

• Leadership in hardware engineering organizations
• Design margin discipline across multiple disciplines
• Experience with AIT build flows and environmental testing
• Ability to engage in design reviews and anomaly investigations
• Experience with make-vs-buy decisions and cost/schedule analysis

Benefits

• Employee friendly equity compensation
• 4% direct matching 401k
• Health Insurance: 100% employee coverage & 75% dependent coverage
• Parental leave and childcare coverage
• Flexible vacation and sick time from day one
• 12 company holidays
• $100 monthly wellness benefit
• Relocation package if not based in Denver

Pay

Salary Range: $213,036 - $243,416 per year

Schedule

Not specified

Benefits

• Employee friendly equity compensation
• 4% direct matching 401k
• Health Insurance: 100% employee coverage & 75% dependent coverage
• Parental leave and childcare coverage
• Flexible vacation and sick time from day one
• 12 company holidays
• $100 monthly wellness benefit
• Relocation package if not based in Denver