Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer – New Glenn 9X4 Landing Gear Subsystem

Application close date:
Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!

This role supports the development and operations of New Glenn, a single-configuration, heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle capable of routinely carrying people and payloads to low-Earth orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, cislunar, and beyond. Its first stage is fully reusable, and the vehicle was designed from the beginning to be human-capable.

Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer –New Glenn 9X4 Landing Gear Subsystem

Role Summary

This role supports the development and operations of New Glenn — a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. The fully reusable Stage 1 booster (GS1-9E, powered by nine BE-4 engines) is central to Blue Origin's mission of dramatically lowering the cost of access to space through rapid reuse.

As a Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer on the New Glenn Stage 1 Landing Gear Subsystem, you will own the design, analysis, and qualification of clean-sheet landing gear hardware for the New Glenn 2.0 booster. You will join a small, high-performing team of approximately ten engineers driving a design philosophy centered on reusability, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness — hardware that lands a booster and flies again with minimal touch labor.

This is a hands-on design role with end-to-end ownership: you will take components from requirements and concept through detailed design, development test, qualification, and rate production, and you will stay with your hardware through post-flight inspection and refurbishment.

We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, engineering judgment, and commitment to quality to positively impact safe human spaceflight. Passion for our mission and vision is required.

Responsibilities

- Own the complete lifecycle of assigned landing gear components and mechanisms — requirements and interface definition, conceptual and detailed design, analysis, development testing, qualification, manufacturing support, and post-flight serviceability
- Design deployable structures and mechanisms including actuators, dampers, latches, locks, and energy-absorbing elements, with explicit attention to deployment reliability and touchdown load paths
- Generate component drawings, assembly drawings, and interface control documents, applying GD&T per ASME Y14.5 and performing tolerance stack-ups on mechanism kinematics
- Perform sizing, material selection, and structural, kinematic, and dynamic analysis to demonstrate positive margin under landing loads, vibration, thermal, and cryogenic proximity environments
- Design for reusability — specify inspection points, wear interfaces, tribological surfaces, and refurbishment procedures that hold up across a rapid-reuse flight cadence
- Drive designs to recurring cost and touch-labor targets, partnering with manufacturing and Advanced Manufacturing to make parts producible at rate
- Develop component specifications, support source selection, and manage suppliers through development, qualification, and delivery of flight hardware
- Plan and execute development and qualification test campaigns, including test article definition, instrumentation, data reduction, and anomaly resolution
- Contribute to subsystem safety products — fault trees, component-level failure mode assessments, and reliability assessments
- Support first-time system builds and integration on the floor, resolving technical and schedule issues in real time
- Coach and technically mentor junior engineers on the team

Minimum Qualifications

- B.S. in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering field
- 8+ years of experience designing mechanical or electro-mechanical systems for aerospace or comparable high-reliability applications
- Recent hands-on experience taking mechanical hardware from concept through qualification on aircraft, spacecraft, or launch vehicles
- Strong mechanical design and mechanism analysis skills using 3D CAD (Creo preferred) and FEA tools (ANSYS preferred)
- Demonstrated proficiency creating engineering drawings with GD&T per ASME Y14.5, including tolerance stack analysis
- Working knowledge of manufacturing, assembly, integration, and qualification testing, and experience with configuration control of engineering documentation (Windchill preferred)
- Experience specifying and justifying margins and test sequences for aerospace systems
- Proficient in technical writing, communicating complex ideas clearly and concisely
- Demonstrated ability to earn trust and collaborate across engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain
- Comfortable in a fast-paced, clean-sheet environment with frequently shifting priorities
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum

Preferred Qualifications

- M.S. in mechanical, aerospace, or a related engineering field
- Direct experience with landing systems, landing gear, deployable mechanisms, dampers/actuators, or touchdown/loads-driven design
- Experience developing reusable flight hardware with emphasis on refurbishment, rate production, and per-flight cost reduction
- Deep knowledge of aerospace mechanisms design practice and standards.
- Background in structural dynamics, transient/impact analysis, or shock and energy-absorption design
- Experience with tribology, bearings, bushings, lubrication, and wear in reusable mechanisms
- Demonstrated ability to manage supplier relationships and drive component development through qualification

Base Pay Range for:
WA applicants is $145,188.00 - $203,263.20

Other site ranges may differ

Culture Statement

Don’t meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Export Control Regulations

Applicants for employment at Blue Origin must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e. current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

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