Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics)

Vast is looking for a Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics), reporting to the Director of Build & Supplier Reliability, to support the reliability of flight avionics hardware across the product lifecycle for our human-rated space stations.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. 

Responsibilities: 

• Own Build Reliability for avionics hardware and work centers, setting expectations for reliability, manufacturability, and build and flight readiness.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Mission Assurance leadership to ensure robust, scalable quality and verification plans across the product lifecycle, with lessons consistently carried across programs.
• Ensure successful introduction of flight hardware by defining readiness criteria–including process qualification, manufacturability, and inspectability–and driving the retirement of build risks through production ramp-up.
• Drive maturation of internal avionics production processes, ensuring documentation, equipment, tooling, process controls, data collection, and training support consistent and streamlined execution.
• Ensure off-nominal work is performed and documented reliably. Partner with Mission Assurance to drive risk mitigations and steer response plans to severe issues. Provide leadership and technical direction for high-visibility issues, establishing recovery plans and aligning operations, quality, and engineering on execution.
• Collect and analyze build data to identify risk and recurring issues. Lead build quality reviews, generate data-driven recommendations, and effectively influence partner teams to prioritize efforts that prevent escapes and improve reliability.
• Lead containment and root-cause investigation of high-impact Avionics-related issues. Ensure implementation and verification of robust corrective actions that address root cause and systemic contributors across Vast.
• Lead major cost reduction initiatives through simplification of requirements, clearer design standards, streamlined inspection and process validation steps, and strengthened process controls.
• Mentor individuals and teams to elevate reliability capabilities across the company.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent experience
• 12+ years of experience in quality, manufacturing, reliability, or design in aerospace, defense, or high-reliability hardware environments
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives with executive visibility and influence technical direction across organizations
• Excellent communication and technical leadership skills

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Proven track record of driving systemic improvements and shaping engineering strategy.
• Deep expertise in reliability engineering, quality systems, and standards (ISO 9001, AS9100, etc.)
• Mastery of advanced reliability and quality tools (RCA, FMEA, SPC, control plans); Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent experience preferred
• Strong technical depth in avionics design, manufacturing, integration, and/or test

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 10%
• Ability to support mission-critical events outside normal working hours