Mechanical Engineer | Deployable Radiators

Background
Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.
Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.
Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.
This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation ’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

The Role

As a Mechanical Engineer – Deployable Radiators, you will be the responsible engineer for the large deployable radiators that reject heat from our on-orbit compute payload and integrate the spacecraft’s liquid cooling loop. This is a structures-first, hands-on role: you will own the structural design of the radiator panels, the mechanisms that stow, restrain, and deploy them, and the thermal integration that turns them into a working radiator. You will own this hardware end to end, from concept and analysis through the ground testbeds used to prove it out, qualification, and on-orbit deployment.

These are large, load-bearing structures that must survive demanding launch and ascent environments while stowed and then deploy reliably into a stiff, flat radiating surface on orbit. You will work closely with thermal, structures, manufacturing, propulsion, power, avionics, and software teams to deliver an integrated solution. We’re looking for a strong structures and manufacturing background paired with solid mechanism design skills—someone who can move quickly, iterate often, and take full ownership of hardware that directly determines whether our payload survives launch and stays cool in orbit.

Responsibilities

• Own the structural design of the deployable radiator panels from concept through flight, sizing them to survive stowed launch and ascent loads and to deploy into a radiating surface.

• Perform structural analysis across the full mission profile, including quasi-static and random vibration launch loads and deployed-state dynamics.

• Drive design-for-manufacturing of the panels and their assemblies, including joining and/or bonding methods, and work with suppliers to ensure high-quality, scalable production.

• Design the deployment mechanisms that stow, restrain, and deploy the radiators—hinges, latches, and release devices—and the interfaces that carry loads into the spacecraft.

• Analyze deployment kinematics, mechanism loads, restraint release, synchronization, and deployment reliability and margin, and design out jam and hang-up risks.

• Integrate the radiator panels with the liquid cooling loop and perform the thermal design of the radiator—heat rejection, fin efficiency, and thermal gradients—in partnership with the thermal team.

• Design, build, and operate ground testbeds and dev rigs to characterize panels and mechanisms, validate deployment, and de-risk the flight design ahead of qualification.

• Develop and execute deployment, structural static/modal, vibration, thermal-vacuum, and qualification/acceptance test programs to verify flight-worthiness.

• Author and maintain drawings, interface control documents, analysis reports, test procedures, and release/configuration records.

• Diagnose and resolve structural, mechanism, and thermal anomalies during integration and test, applying root-cause analysis and implementing corrective actions.

• Partner with thermal, structures, propulsion, power, avionics, and software teams to ensure the radiators integrate seamlessly within the overall spacecraft architecture.

• Embrace a fast-paced development environment, driving quick design cycles, hardware builds, and test campaigns to accelerate the program schedule.

Basic Qualifications

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field

• 3+ years of experience designing and analyzing lightweight structures and mechanical hardware in aerospace or other high-performance environments

• Strong structural fundamentals: strength, stiffness, and buckling lightweight structures, and bonded and mechanically fastened joints

• Hands-on experience designing mechanisms such as hinges, latches, springs, and release devices or large structural assemblies

• Proficiency with FEA for static, modal, and dynamic analysis of structures

• Experience taking hardware from concept through build and test, with hands-on integration and test experience

• Proficiency with CAD (e.g., NX, SolidWorks, or similar)

• Experience working in fast-paced, hardware-focused development environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience designing deployable structures—radiators, solar array substrates, antennas, or booms—including stowed restraint, deployment mechanisms, and latching

• Experience designing for space environments (thermal, vibration, vacuum) and background in spacecraft structures, mechanisms, or thermal systems

• Experience with bonded and welded assemblies and sheet-metal or machined-frame fabrication

• Airframe or launch-vehicle primary-structure experience, including significant ascent loads

• Familiarity with radiator or thermal-control design and thermal-fluid coupling to cooling loops at the spacecraft system level

• Knowledge of aerospace standards (MIL-SPEC, NASA-STD, ECSS) and spaceflight hardware qualification and acceptance margins

• Hands-on experience with prototyping, machining, deployment test rigs, and gravity-offload or ambient deployment testing

• Startup or early-stage hardware experience; comfort operating with significant technical ambiguity

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $150,000 – $200,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

• Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.

• 401(k) retirement savings plan

• Paid time off

• 10 paid holidays per calendar year

• Paid parental leave

• Relocation assistance if applicable

ITAR Requirements

• Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITAR here.