Varda Space Industries jobs and pay

Yes, Varda Space Industries is hiring, almost all of it on site in El Segundo, California, and it posts a pay range on every open role except its internships and one machinist job. Varda builds small spacecraft that process materials in microgravity, starting with drug crystals, and brings them back to Earth in a reentry capsule. On 30 September 2026 it announced a $251 million Series D led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital, with Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8090 Industries, Giant Step and Also Capital taking part. Varda says that brings its total funding to $598 million, that it has completed six reentry missions and that more than a dozen more launches and reentries are planned through 2028. It names no valuation.

Most of the hiring is hardware engineering: manufacturing engineers for each part of the spacecraft, avionics, propulsion, payloads and thermal, at levels from Engineer II to Principal. Many ads give a range for two or three levels (for example Engineer I and Engineer II), which we show as one span from the lowest level to the highest. Technician, electrician and coordinator roles are paid by the hour. Varda also lists more than two dozen internships for spring and summer 2027, without pay. Every ad says that, because staff work with export-controlled items, Varda only hires “U.S. persons”: US citizens, permanent residents and certain protected individuals.