Reliability Engineer

Reliability EngineerAbout Cowboy Space CorporationMissionCowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.BackgroundCowboy 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providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure.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 RoleYou are our first Reliability Engineer, so you are not inheriting a process: you are deciding what it is. There is a well-worn reliability playbook in this industry, developed at large primes on programs with hundreds of engineers, and most of it will make us slower without making the rocket better. Your job is to figure out which parts earn their keep here, implement those, and leave the rest on the <shelf.You> own how we reason about failure across the vehicle and the engines: where the single points of failure are, which ones we accept and why, where redundancy actually buys something versus just adding parts and interfaces, what test data says about margin, and what we do about the anomaly we saw on the stand last week. You will sit with the propulsion, structures, and avionics engineers rather than in a separate assurance org.What You'll DoDecide what reliability toolkit this program runs on, write it down short enough that people follow it, and defend every inclusion and omissionPick analysis depth per subsystem instead of applying one standard everywhere — some interfaces deserve a full FMECA, some deserve a one-page failure walkdown, some deserve nothingOwn the failure analyses: FMEA/FMECA, fault trees, single-point-failure identification, common-cause assessment, and the redundancy trades that followWork the physics of failure, not just the statistics — fatigue, thermal cycling, cryogenic effects, contamination, wear, and the failure modes peculiar to LOX and LNG serviceDefine what each test needs to prove, and get that instrumentation into the plan before the article is builtRun failure review and corrective action fast enough that engineers use it voluntarilyBuild the lightest tooling that work: Python and version control, not an enterprise suiteTeach. The leverage is not the analyses you run, it is the engineers who start thinking about failure modes before they get to you.What We're Looking For5-8 years in reliability, mission assurance, or systems engineering with real reliability ownership, on hardware where failure had consequencesCommand of the core methods: FMECA, fault tree analysis, common-cause analysis, allocation, Weibull and life-data analysisThe judgment to right-size. You have seen reliability process applied where it did not belong, and you have opinions about the alternativePhysics-of-failure instinct: you want to know why the part broke, not just how often parts like it breakHands-on test experience. You have stood next to hardware, watched it misbehave, and worked the anomaly to root causePython sufficient to run Monte Carlos, fit life data, and build tools your teammates use without your helpStatistical honesty about small samples. When a number rests on four data points and an assumed distribution, you say so instead of quoting three significant figuresWillingness to make a call on incomplete information, state the assumptions, and reviseBachelor's degree in engineering, or similar.Nice to HaveLaunch vehicle or liquid rocket engine experience, especially cryogenicRotating machinery reliability: turbopumps, bearings, seals, dynamic environmentsPropulsion or structural test experience, including instrumentation planning and data reductionExperience standing up a reliability function from nothingProbabilistic risk assessment or structural reliability backgroundSupplier quality or nonconformance experience, and the composure for a hard vendor conversationReusable vehicle experience: inspection, refurbishment, reliability across flights of the same articleCompensation and BenefitsThe salary range for this position is $140,000 - 185,000 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.Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance401(k) retirement savings planPaid time off10 paid holidays per calendar yearPaid parental leaveRelocation assistance if applicableDaily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacksITAR RequirementsExport 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.DisclaimerThis job description is a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the job and position. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties and responsibilities. Contents are subject to change at Cowboy Space Corp.’s discretion.Cowboy Space Corp. is an equal employment opportunity employer. We consider individuals for employment or promotion according to their skills, abilities and experience. Cowboy Space Corp. is committed to complying with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, age, national origin, ancestry, physical, mental or developmental disability, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and medical conditions relating to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), veteran status, military status, marital or registered domestic partnership status, medical condition (including cancer or genetic characteristics), genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, as well as any other category protected by federal, state or local laws.