Senior Systems Engineer at Vast
Long Beach, CA
$137,760–$230,472
Jul 17, 2026
Long Beach, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level systems engineering role focused on building and maintaining the technical foundation for a commercial space station program. Day-to-day work spans requirements definition and traceability, verification and validation planning, design review leadership, and cross-disciplinary process ownership. The role suits an engineer with a background in complex aerospace systems who is comfortable driving technical standards and tooling across multiple engineering teams.
Mid level · 4+ years · Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
Pay in the description: $137,760–$230,472
Advertised as Senior, but the requirements read as Mid.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 360 people in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (computer occupations, all other). range 270–470
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $112,112 (middle half $73,931–$166,799). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (4)
This is a Systems Engineering role in the aerospace/space-station domain — not a standard computer/IT occupation. No SOC code maps cleanly; 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is the closest available fit, but the role is fundamentally an aerospace systems engineer. Treat the SOC classification with caution.
The posting spans two levels: 'Senior Systems Engineer' ($137,760–$195,552) and 'Staff Systems Engineer' ($162,360–$230,472). The title is Senior, but the compensation range shown for California ($137,760–$230,472) covers both bands. Seniority is assessed as Mid based on the minimum 4-year experience gate (only 1+ year of which must be systems-engineering focused), which is well below what a Senior-level role typically demands in this domain.
Python, MATLAB, Excel, and Tableau appear only under 'Preferred Skills & Experience' and are therefore not hard gates.
The role requires U.S. person status (citizens, nationals, green card holders, asylees/refugees) due to export control obligations — this is not a formal security clearance but does restrict the eligible candidate pool.
Read the full posting
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