Varda Space Industries
Ground Support Equipment Engineer - Automation & EtherCAT
About this role
Varda seeks a Ground Support Equipment Engineer to design and build sophisticated test systems and automation infrastructure for spaceflight hardware qualification. You'll work with modern PLC frameworks and EtherCAT tooling, owning systems end-to-end from electrical design through commissioning while supporting aggressive program timelines.
What you'll do
- Design, build, and maintain test systems and ground support equipment for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing
- Integrate external hardware including thermal vacuum chambers, environmental systems, and precision instrumentation
- Develop and extend Varda's internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling using TwinCAT 3 and structured text
- Contribute to architecture decisions on real-time control implementation for high-frequency applications
- Build electrical cabinets, wire panels, and own systems end-to-end from design through commissioning
- Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on aggressive timelines
What they're looking for
- EtherCAT and industrial communication protocols (Modbus, RS-232/485)
- PLC programming with Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 and IEC 61131-3 structured text
- Electrical panel design and cabinet wiring
- Test automation and controls engineering
- Real-time control system design and debugging
- Hardware integration and commissioning
- Python orchestration and higher-level control logic
- Time-series data acquisition and visualization tools
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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
- Describe your experience designing and implementing EtherCAT systems—what was the most complex integration you've handled?
- How do you approach choosing between PLC-based real-time control and higher-level Python orchestration for a given application?