The private spaceflight industry is heating up, and hiring. Sierra Space Co. announced February 24 that it would seek to hire 1,000 more people this year, almost doubling the size of the 1,100-person commercial space company. The company says it currently has 700 job openings and that the rest will come between now and the middle of the year. More than 400 of the existing job openings are in the company’s engineering department.
The majority of the new positions will be in Sierra Space’s two Colorado facilities in Louisville and South Metro Denver. Other jobs will be for sites in Madison, Wisconsin; Brevard County, Florida; and Durham, North Carolina.
The new hires announcement follows a successful round of fundraising for the 30-year old spaceflight company, which aspires to launch its own private space plane soon. According to a company statement, Sierra Space raised $1.4 billion in primary capital late last year.
The money will go towards the new hires as well as development of the company’s Dream Chaser commercial space plane, which Sierra hopes will get to start delivering cargo to the International Space Station in late 2022.
“Sierra Space has an incredibly important mission to build in space the next platform for business,” said Tom Vice, citing aspirations to open low earth orbit, or LEO. “We are seeking the brightest minds who are inspired by our mission and pioneering spirit to join us at Sierra Space,” he said.
