Applications Engineer Pharma

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 a Pharma Applications Engineer to join our this role you will be responsible for leading efforts to develop deploy improve and manage all Pharma 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 teams across Varda to lead initiatives to enhance company processes execution insight and infrastructure robustness. Projects will include a wide range of desired outcomes including cycle time reduction cost reduction improved decision making risk reduction and any other key operational efficiency. Your contributions will immediately impact functional 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

• Serve as the embedded technology partner for the pharma business unit supporting lab systems spend tracking and data automation.
• Administer and optimize the pharma platform stack (ERP CRM ELN LIMS QMS) to support current R&D and scale with the clinical pipeline.
• Build internal applications (low-code and custom-built) that automate repetitive data tasks across the pharma org.
• Design dashboards and solutions in Power BI SQL and Python to surface decisions for pharma leadership.
• Evaluate and support integrations between LIMS ELN instrument software and downstream data processing.
• Uphold data integrity audit logs and user controls aligned with GxP and FDA 21 CFR Part 11.
• Build pilot and deploy AI-powered tools including LLM-based agents and generative tooling across pharma workflows.
• Lead training and enablement that drives adoption and reduces shadow IT across pharma.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Systems Data Analytics Engineering or a related technical field.
• 3 years of experience supporting or managing enterprise applications (ERP CRM QMS or LIMS).
• 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 pharma stakeholders.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• 3 years of experience in a pharma-regulated or compliance-driven environment.
• Experience with GxP-validated systems and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance documentation.
• Familiarity with pharmaceutical industry operations including regulatory submissions drug lifecycle management or commercial data flows.
• Hands-on experience with ETL tools (Alteryx dbt SSIS or Informatica) and cloud data platforms (Snowflake Databricks AWS Redshift).
• Salesforce administration or development experience (Flows or Lightning).
• Track record of building workflow automation or custom tooling with quantifiable outcomes such as hours saved error reduction or user adoption metrics in a regulated environment.
• 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).