Composites Engineer

Employer description

At Reflect, you will be expected to move fast, have a lot of ownership and, most importantly, be able to effect change. If this excites you, we are interested in hearing about your best work and accomplishments across any domain and from any points in your life.

About the RoleAs a Composites Engineer, you’ll own the engineering, development, and production of our ultra-light deployable composite structures. This role sits at the intersection of design, analysis, and hands-on manufacturing: you’ll refine laminate schedules, develop new layup processes, design tooling and fixtures, run experiments, and drive the factory-floor workflows that take a concept from CAD to flight hardware.

You will be responsible for improving yield, repeatability, and performance across all composite processes—curing, layup, machining, bonding, inspection, and structural validation—while collaborating closely with design engineering, test, and manufacturing. Your work directly determines the performance of the composite structures we’re flying to space.

ResponsibilitiesOwn the engineering and process development for all in-house composite structures

Develop, validate, and optimize laminate schedules, cure cycles, and layup techniques

Design tooling, molds, fixtures, and inspection methods for thin high-precision composite parts

Run experiments to characterize materials and processes (fiber alignment, void fraction, cure kinetics, spring-in, etc.)

Implement manufacturing controls: travelers, process specs, inspection criteria, and QA workflows

Diagnose and resolve unusual composite manufacturing and structural issues

Collaborate with technicians to ensure manufacturability and performance alignment

Support fabrication on the floor—hands-on when needed—to bridge engineering and manufacturing

Drive continual improvement in surface quality, dimensional tolerance, repeatability, and yield

Support development and maintenance of capital equipment (ovens, autoclave alternatives, CNC routing for molds, etc.)

Ideal Qualifications4–6 years of composites engineering experience spanning design, processing, and manufacturing.

Strong background in composite materials engineering, aerospace structures, or manufacturing engineering

Experience designing and producing thin high-precision composite laminates (prepreg preferred)

Hands-on experience with composite processing: layup, cure, debulk, trimming, bonding, inspection

Experience developing tooling, mold design, or fixture design for composite components

Familiarity with structural analysis of composite parts (FEA, laminate theory, material allowables)

Experience setting or improving manufacturing processes, specs, and quality control methods

Comfort working in fast-paced R&D environments with rapid iteration

Experience with spacecraft, high-performance deployable structures, or other extreme-environment hardware is a bonus

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the above qualifications, we are likely still interested in hearing from you. Hiring exceptional individuals is our #1 priority, and we believe that exceptional people often have highly unusual backgrounds.

We are also interested in carving out unique roles for unconventional people that we are excited about working with.

BenefitsReflect Orbital’s success will hinge on our team, which is why our compensation and benefits plan is designed to reward our employees and support their families as generously as we’re able.

Broad choice of medical/dental/vision coverage, Reflect covers 100% of each base-policy

Access to HSA, FSA, and 401K

Unlimited paid time off

Healthy lunches provided daily

Equal OpportunityReflect Orbital is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Reflect Orbital is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

More about Reflect Orbital:

Learn more about our team here.