# Director, Payloads Systems Integration and Test at Varda

- Company: Varda
- What the company does: Expanding the economic bounds of humankind with the world's first orbital manufacturing & reentry platform. Backed by General Catalyst, Khosla and Founders Fund.
- Company website: https://varda.com/
- Type: Startups
- Level: Principal and up
- Location: El Segundo, California, United States
- Work setup: On-site
- Pay: $186K to $251K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-09-25
- Apply by: 2026-11-09
- Apply: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/vardaspace/jobs/8005911003
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/varda-director-payloads-systems-integration-and-test/

## About the role

As Director of Payload Systems Integration and Test, you will lead and grow a team of multidisciplinary engineers responsible for end-to-end mission success of a diverse portfolio of payloads, such as inertial, RF, and optical sensors and communication systems, as well as various types of pharmaceutical processing payloads. This role combines deep technical authority with team leadership, product definition, and customer delivery

## What they're looking for

- 10+ years of spacecraft or aerospace hardware experience spanning integration, test, and mission execution
- Demonstrated ability to take poorly-defined technical problems and turn them into executable plans, interfaces, and requirements
- Hands-on experience planning and running environmental qualification campaigns on flight hardware
- Strong interface engineering background: ICDs, requirements flow-down, interface verification across organizational boundaries
- Experience leading engineers, including hiring and developing early-career talent
- Breadth across mechanical, thermal, fluidic, electrical, and software interfaces, with enough depth to be a credible technical backstop for the team

Tags: Payload & Mechanisms