Design Reliability Engineering Manager

Company: astrolab
Location: Hawthorne, CA
Type: hybrid
Posted: Oct 30, 2026
Views: 1

✨ AI Summary

Astrolab, a lunar operations company building the first human-capable lunar rover since 1972, is hiring a Design Reliability Engineering Manager in Hawthorne, CA. The role involves leading end-to-end reliability engineering for avionics, mechanisms, and power systems, requiring 5+ years of spaceflight or high-consequence hardware experience and 2+ years in people management. Perks include equity ownership, comprehensive health benefits, and a 401(k) match.

Astrolab is The Lunar Operations Company. We design and build the systems and hardware the lunar economy will come to depend on — rovers, power, and data networks for sustained operations on the Moon. We are focused on the problems that must be solved before the next chapter of human exploration can scale. The Moon does not forgive untested assumptions. The people who work here know that, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

CLV-1 is the first human-capable lunar rover since 1972. It will carry Artemis IV astronauts across the lunar South Pole, one of the harshest environments humans have ever worked in. There is no service center. It must work. As the Design Reliability Engineering Manager, you will ensure CLV-1's systems survive the mission. You will work across disciplines to build reliability into the design itself, identifying and mitigating failures before they arise.
  • Lead reliability engineering end-to-end: define and own the reliability program across avionics, mechanisms, power, thermal, and structures for current and future rover programs
  • Build and manage a team of reliability and design assurance engineers, setting hiring priorities, technical standards, and growth paths as the company scales
  • Architect Astrolab's design standards and test methodologies
  • Champion the Astrolab design process and set design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new hardware
  • Own change and risk reviews, translating technical risk and impact into decisions the team can act on
  • Become the person the organization trusts to translate technical risk into clear, confident decisions
  • Build the processes that ensure designs meet standards, reviews are comprehensive, changes are implemented, and risks are mitigated
  • Flow reliability requirements down to hardware: margins, screening levels, derating guidelines
  • Develop specialized analysis tools, review templates, reliability checklists, and design guides
  • Mentor engineers on reliability methods and analysis techniques
  • Capture lessons learned and drive continuous improvements to strengthen standards and processes
Basic Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree in a science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) related field
  • 5+ years in reliability, design assurance, or systems engineering for spaceflight, aerospace, or other high-consequence hardware (defense, nuclear, medical devices considered)
  • 2+ years in a people-management or team-lead role
Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience with FMEA/FMECA, fault tree analysis, reliability prediction (MIL-HDBK-217 or physics-of-failure methods), and worst-case analysis.
  • Experience with the environments that break lunar hardware: extreme thermal cycling, vacuum outgassing, radiation (SEU/SEL/TID), regolith/dust contamination, and launch/landing shock and vibration loads.
  • Experience designing, integrating, testing, or operating space vehicles or other large, complex systems
  • Experience standing up a reliability function at a growth-stage company.
  • Experience creating engineering standards, review templates, or technical guidance frameworks
  • Experience with manufacturing processes, materials selection, and hardware qualification pathways
  • Experience with fracture control, human-rated hardware standards, or similar reliability frameworks
  • Join a team of best-in-class engineers building the foundation of planetary surface exploration
  • Equity ownership in the company
  • Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health support
  • 401(k) plan with company match
  • Flexible PTO and parental leave
  • Weekly lunch stipend, plus complimentary snacks and beverages on-site
  • Once a month social hour on-site with food and drinks
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About the Company

Name: astrolab
Location: Hawthorne, California
Website: https://www.astrolab.space

Astrolab is building the robotic platform for the multi-planet future. We are pioneering new ways to explore and operate on distant planetary bodies. We’re singularly focused on designing, building, and operating a fleet of multi-purpose commercial planetary rovers to extend and enhance humanity’s presence in the solar system. The multi-functional Flexible Logistics & Exploration (FLEX) rover is being developed to support human operations, robotic science, exploration, logistics, construction, resource utilization, and other activities critical to enabling a sustained human presence on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

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