Applications Engineer Engineering

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.Vardas W-Series vehicles are built designed and operated by Varda in-house including the pharmaceutical processing payloads the capsules the C-PICA heat shields and the satellite buses.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX Blue Origin major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures Lux Capital Founders Fund Caffeinated Capital General Catalyst and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo California where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles equipment and materials are built integrated and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington DC and Huntsville AL.

Join Varda and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role

Varda is seeking an Engineering Applications Engineer to join our this role you will be responsible for leading efforts to develop deploy improve and manage all Engineering applications. You will manage the implementation of these solutions through the entire product life cycle from opportunity identification to support and sustainment. You will work cross-functionally with multiple engineering teams across Varda to ensure tools are integrated compliant and scaled to support hardware and software development workflows. Projects will include a wide range of desired outcomes including cycle time reduction cost reduction improved decision-making risk reduction configuration control and other key operational efficiencies. Your contributions will immediately impact engineering operations and have an opportunity to contribute to Vardas overall growth and success. This role will report to the Director of Enterprise Applications.

This is a full-time exempt position located in our El Segundo headquarters.

Responsibilities

• Own the engineering systems stack (PLM CAD/PDM MBSE change management) including daily admin data integrity configuration control vendor escalations and release cycles.
• Map and re-engineer engineering workflows to eliminate manual handoffs and improve data capture at the source.
• Build internal applications (low-code and custom-built) and ETL pipelines that connect engineering tools into the broader enterprise data layer.
• Design analytics dashboards and reports in Power BI SQL and Python to surface decisions for engineering and manufacturing leaders.
• Build pilot and deploy AI-powered tools including LLM-based agents and generative tooling to streamline engineering workflows.
• Support AS9100 and CMMC compliance documentation and partner with IT/Infosec on access and audit readiness.
• Lead training and enablement that drives adoption and reduces shadow IT across engineering.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Systems Engineering or a related technical field.
• 3 years of experience supporting or managing enterprise engineering applications (PLM CAD/PDM MBSE or engineering change management tools).
• Proficiency in SQL and at least one scripting/programming language (Python JavaScript or similar).
• Demonstrated experience building reports and dashboards in a BI platform (Power BI Tableau or equivalent).
• Comfortable gathering requirements directly from end users and iterating prototypes to production.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to produce system design documentation SOPs and training materials for non-technical engineering stakeholders.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• Direct experience administering PLM platforms (Teamcenter Windchill Arena) or CAD data management systems (SolidWorks PDM Vault).
• Familiarity with engineering data domains (BOM structures CAD metadata change order workflows) and aerospace engineering data standards.
• Experience with MBSE toolchains (CAMEO Capella) and engineering change management workflows.
• Experience with AS9100 and/or CMMC compliance documentation and audit support.
• Hands-on experience with ETL tools (Alteryx dbt SSIS or Informatica) and cloud data platforms (Snowflake Databricks AWS Redshift).
• Track record of building workflow automation or custom tooling with quantifiable outcomes such as hours saved error reduction or user adoption metrics.
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Project Management Professional (PMP) or Lean Six Sigma certification.

Pay Range

• E1: $110000 - $140000 per year (1-1.5 years of exp)
• E2: $120000 - $153000 per year (1-3 years of exp)
• Sr. Engineer: $140000 - 180000 per year (3-6 years of exp)

• This role is on-site in El Segundo CA
• Leveling and base salary are determined by job-related skills education level experience level and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

Varda like all employers must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items our policy is to only hire U.S. persons who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

US person means: U.S. citizen U.S. lawful permanent resident or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e. individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum).