Varda Space Industries
Automation and Controls Engineer II
About this role
Varda seeks an Automation and Controls Engineer II to design and build ground support equipment and test systems for spacecraft qualification. You'll develop custom PLC frameworks and EtherCAT tooling, integrate complex hardware, and own test infrastructure end-to-end from electrical design through commissioning.
What you'll do
- Design, build, and maintain test systems and ground support equipment for flight hardware qualification
- Integrate external hardware including thermal vacuum chambers, pressure systems, and precision instrumentation
- Develop and extend Varda's internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling
- Contribute to architecture decisions on real-time control implementation using PLC or Linux-based approaches
- Build electrical cabinets, wire panels, and manage systems from design through commissioning
- Partner with propulsion, avionics, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on tight timelines
What they're looking for
- Test automation and controls engineering
- PLC programming (Beckhoff TwinCAT 3, IEC 61131-3 structured text)
- Industrial hardware integration (EtherCAT, Modbus, RS-232/485)
- Electrical panel design and cabinet wiring
- Real-time control systems
- Python orchestration
- Data acquisition and visualization tools
- Aerospace or spacecraft testing experience
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Varda Space Industries
Varda Space Industries builds commercial spacecraft and orbital manufacturing systems for missions in low Earth orbit, including reentry capsules and satellite buses. The company is hiring mission operations engineers, software engineers (ground segment, flight, and embedded), and manufacturing engineers to develop mission-critical systems, operational infrastructure, and scalable production capabilities.
- Website
- varda.com
Likely interview questions
- Walk us through a test system you designed end-to-end—what hardware did you integrate and what challenges did you face?
- Describe your experience with EtherCAT. Have you worked with DC sync, ENI configuration, or driver-level implementation?