Aerospace AI Startup Jobs

Defense technology company building autonomous systems and AI-powered defense capabilities to transform military and border security operations.

Defense AI company building autonomous aircraft and AI pilot technology for military applications.

CesiumAstro builds communications systems and phased-array hardware/software for space, air, and ground missions, supporting satellite and defense connectivity use cases.

K2 Space designs and manufactures large, high-power "mega-class" satellites with enhanced payload capacity and propulsion for government and commercial customers. The company is vertically integrated, building its satellites at a factory in Torrance, CA, with additional teams in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.

Develops autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, and space-based interceptor systems for orbital defense and space superiority capabilities.

ICEYE operates the world's largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, providing all-weather, day-and-night Earth-observation imagery and data intelligence. Its customers include governments, defense agencies, insurers, and maritime/disaster-response organizations. The company was spun out of Aalto University in Finland in 2014.

Vast is a US-based commercial space company building human-rated artificial-gravity orbital space stations, starting with its single-module Haven-1 station targeted as the world's first commercial space station. Founded by Jed McCaleb and headquartered in Long Beach, California ('Space Beach'), the company designs and manufactures its spacecraft hardware in-house. It is racing to provide a commercial successor to the International Space Station.

Autonomous drone manufacturer building AI-powered drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise inspection.

Helsing is a European defense AI company building autonomy software and hardware for democratic nations. It develops real-time battlefield decision software, AI-enabled drones, and sensor fusion systems for military applications across NATO allies. Founded in 2021, it has grown to become one of Europe's most valuable defense tech startups with an $18B valuation.

A defense technology company specializing in counter-drone radar and other defense solutions.

Muon Space is an end-to-end satellite constellation company that designs, builds, and operates mission-optimized spacecraft delivering Earth intelligence data for climate monitoring, weather, and national security customers including the NRO and Space Force.

Apex is a defense-grade satellite bus manufacturer producing configurable, productized spacecraft platforms (Aries, Nova, Comet) for LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits. The Los Angeles-based company serves commercial and sovereign government customers at scale with peak annual capacity exceeding 200 units per year. Apex launched Project Shadow, the first commercially-led on-orbit space-based interceptor demonstration.

Divergent Technologies develops the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS), an end-to-end digital manufacturing platform that uses machine learning to design, 3D-print, and automate assembly of complex vehicle structures. Based in Torrance, CA, it serves automotive OEMs (Aston Martin, Bugatti, McLaren) and is expanding into aerospace and defense (Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Raytheon).

Hadrian builds AI-enabled autonomous factories that manufacture precision components and systems for aerospace, defense, shipbuilding, and other industrial customers, combining software, robotics, machining, inspection, and factory operations.

Varda Space Industries builds autonomous spacecraft that manufacture pharmaceuticals and other materials in microgravity before returning them to Earth, and sells orbital reentry and hypersonic-test services to government and commercial customers. Founded in 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov, the El Segundo-based company became a unicorn after its 2026 Series D.

Neros designs and manufactures high-performance attritable FPV drones and ground control systems for the U.S. military and allied forces, building a vertically integrated, China-free supply chain. Founded in 2023 by former professional drone racers, it has scaled rapidly to supply the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Ukraine.

Radiant is pioneering mass-produced portable nuclear microreactors, with its flagship Kaleidos reactor delivering 1 MW of clean, zero-emission power in a shipping container-sized form factor. Valued at $1.8 billion, the company is building its factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Antares is developing mass-producible, inherently safe nuclear microreactors for terrestrial, underwater, and space-based applications, producing between 100 kilowatts and 1 megawatt of electricity. The company has a 145,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Torrance, California and is on track to achieve first reactor criticality by mid-2026. Founded by alumni of SpaceX, MIT, and Los Alamos National Lab, Antares is backed by over $130 million in venture capital and government funding.

Inversion Space is turning space into a transportation layer for Earth by building autonomous re-entry vehicles that enable precision delivery of cargo to anywhere on the planet in under an hour, creating an on-demand logistics network in Low-Earth Orbit.

Founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, Cowboy Space (formerly Aetherflux) builds vertically-integrated rockets and solar-powered orbital data centers to run AI/GPU compute workloads in low Earth orbit. The company pivoted from space-based solar power to orbital data centers, determining that building its own rockets was necessary to scale the economics.

Northwood Space designs and manufactures electronically steered phased-array ground stations that enable scalable, rapidly deployable satellite communication and tracking infrastructure. The company serves commercial and government customers including a $50M U.S. Space Force contract to modernize the Satellite Control Network.

Stoke Space Technologies develops the fully and rapidly reusable Nova rocket designed to operate with aircraft-like frequency. Founded by former Blue Origin and SpaceX employees, raised over $1.3B.

The Nuclear Company operates as America's deployment platform for nuclear power, constructing a series of nuclear power plants using a design-once, build-many approach with proven and licensed technology to deliver safe and reliable electricity at the lowest cost.

Vulcan Elements manufactures sintered neodymium iron boron rare earth magnets at its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina facility, aiming to build a U.S. supply chain independent of China. Founded in 2023, the company serves defense and commercial customers including the U.S. military branches.

Amca (Advanced Manufacturing Company of America) acquires and modernizes domestic factories to produce certified aerospace and defense components, combining engineering, qualification testing, and manufacturing on its RAPID AI platform. Based in El Segundo, California, it supplies parts for the F-35, F-16, M1 Abrams, and commercial aircraft to primes like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Honeywell.

Epirus is a defense technology company that builds software-defined high-power microwave and directed-energy systems for counter-UAS, counter-swarm, and electronic-warfare missions. Its flagship Leonidas platform disables drones and electronic threats using solid-state, software-updatable hardware, and the U.S. Army has selected it for its Indirect Fire Protection Capability program.

PhysicsX is an AI company accelerating industrial innovation by combining AI-driven multiphysics inference with numerical simulation to improve the design, manufacturing, and operation of complex products. Founded in 2019 by former Formula 1 engineers, the platform serves enterprises across aerospace, defense, automotive, semiconductors, and energy sectors. PhysicsX raised over $155M including investments from NVIDIA, Atomico, and Temasek.

Array Labs builds high-power, low-cost space radar systems and a formation-flying radar constellation for large-scale 3D Earth imaging and persistent monitoring.

BRINC Drones builds public-safety drone systems for 911 rapid response, indoor tactical operations, firefighting, and search and rescue, including the Lemur 2, Responder, and Guardian aircraft plus its LiveOps command-and-control software. Its platform integrates with Motorola Solutions' police radios, 911/CAD, and CommandCentral systems and is used by 900+ public-safety agencies and more than 20% of U.S. SWAT teams. Founded by CEO Blake Resnick and headquartered in Seattle, the company is scaling U.S. manufacturing with a new Queen Anne factory and HQ.

Defense technology company building AI-powered software for national security missions.

Fuse Energy Technologies builds pulsed-power machines (Marx generators like TITAN) for magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF), generating near-term revenue from nuclear-effects radiation testing for the NNSA, national labs, and defense agencies while working toward commercial fusion power. Founded in 2019 by JC Btaiche and headquartered in San Leandro, CA.

Machina Labs develops AI-powered robotic manufacturing systems for sheet metal forming and industrial production, reducing the need for traditional tooling.

Efficient Computer builds the world's most energy-efficient general-purpose processor, the Electron E1, offering up to 100x greater efficiency than traditional CPUs. Spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, their Fabric architecture minimizes data movement, enabling applications in AI, edge computing, space, defense, and consumer devices.

Pacific Fusion is building a high-gain pulsed magnetic fusion system designed to achieve net facility gain, delivering more fusion energy output than all stored energy input. The company develops affordable, modular fusion technology using common materials to provide abundant, clean energy for a prosperous planet.

Airbound builds the world's most efficient delivery drones, developing advanced autonomous aircraft using blended-wing-body designs for ultra-low-cost logistics. Founded by 20-year-old Naman Pushp, the Bengaluru-based company aims to achieve one-cent drone deliveries at scale, serving medical, defense, and industrial applications.

NODA AI is an AI-native defense company building autonomy orchestration software that enables command and control of mixed autonomous and manned assets across multi-domain military operations. Its platform serves as a vendor-agnostic reasoning layer coordinating heterogeneous autonomous systems for the Department of Defense and allied defense customers.

Tomorrow.io delivers weather intelligence software and proprietary weather data products for aviation, defense, logistics, and enterprise operations.

Builds containerized, forward-deployable drone manufacturing units that can 3D-print unmanned aerial systems in under 24 hours at or near the front line.

Skyryse develops SkyOS, a universal operating system for flight, and is bringing software-defined avionics and autonomy to existing and new aircraft platforms.

Taara develops free-space optical communication technology that delivers high-speed connectivity through narrow beams of light instead of fiber or radio spectrum. Spun out of X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory, the company builds optical wireless systems and photonics technology for expanding broadband infrastructure.

Elveo Mobile (formed in 2026 by the merger of Lynk Global and Omnispace) operates a satellite direct-to-device (D2D) network that connects standard, unmodified mobile phones directly to low-Earth-orbit satellites, combining Lynk's D2D platform with Omnispace's S-band spectrum.

Catalyx Space builds orbital logistics infrastructure, combining spacecraft, software, and operations to move experiments and manufactured payloads to orbit and back. The company focuses on reusable capsules and faster, more predictable in-space deployment and downmass services.

Defense technology company providing software platform for military logistics and field operations optimization.

Westmag (Western Magnetics Company) designs and manufactures drone motors and robot actuators at Factory 01 in South San Francisco, aiming to build a vertically-integrated, NDAA-compliant American supplier for the physical AI hardware stack. The company exited stealth in June 2026 after closing an $11M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital, NFDG, and Menlo Ventures.

Kepler Communications is a Toronto-based satellite connectivity operator building a global low-Earth orbit constellation for broadband and IoT connectivity. The company deploys optical inter-satellite links and is expanding into orbital AI compute via Nvidia Orin chips. Founded in 2015, Kepler has raised over $177M to connect space-borne and ground assets worldwide.

Axion (formerly Axion Ray) is an AI-powered quality intelligence platform for manufacturers. It unifies field, service, and design data to detect, investigate, and resolve product quality issues earlier and cut root-cause analysis time. Customers span industrial, aerospace, consumer, and medtech manufacturing, including Daikin, Harley-Davidson, and SharkNinja.

Aurelius Systems builds Archimedes, an autonomous directed-energy laser platform that detects, tracks, and neutralizes drones without human operators. The San Francisco-based defense tech startup serves military and critical infrastructure protection use cases, offering a low-cost-per-shot alternative to missile-based counter-UAS systems.

Fortastra builds intelligent, maneuverable spacecraft designed to protect government and commercial satellites through remote sensing, autonomous capabilities, and defensive rendezvous and proximity operations. The company targets satellite security, space infrastructure resilience, and operational risk in contested orbital environments. It is headquartered in Torrance, California.

Grid Aero builds autonomous cargo aircraft for long-range, high-payload logistics solutions serving both military and commercial applications with rapid development cycles.

Substrate is America's next-generation semiconductor foundry, developing advanced X-ray lithography technology to challenge industry giants like ASML and TSMC. Founded by brothers James and Oliver Proud, the company uses compact particle accelerators to enable more cost-effective and rapid chip manufacturing in the United States. Backed by Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and In-Q-Tel, Substrate aims to restore American leadership in semiconductor production.

AI-driven manufacturing platform that automates the creation and management of model-based work instructions from CAD files. BuildOS generates 3D animations of assembly steps, reducing documentation time from weeks to hours.

Electronic warfare company building AI-driven software and hardware—incl. SIGINT payloads and autonomous drones—for spectrum dominance.

MatrixSpace develops AI-enabled 4D radar sensing and edge-to-cloud situational awareness software for defense, security, and critical infrastructure applications.

Sunflower Labs builds autonomous drone-based security systems that combine robotics, sensors, and software to monitor residential, commercial, and industrial properties.

Represents X-Bow Systems, which develops additive-manufactured solid rocket motors and modular launch services for defense and space customers.

Morpheus Space develops electric propulsion systems and mobility solutions for satellites, including modular thrusters for commercial and government space missions.

Airloom Energy is reinventing wind power with a novel, low-profile track-based turbine system that dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of harnessing wind energy. Backed by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, the Laramie, Wyoming-based startup is developing a pilot facility to demonstrate its modular wind technology. Airloom's design uses lightweight airfoils on an oval track, offering a simpler and more affordable alternative to traditional wind turbines.

Voliro develops autonomous aerial robotics for industrial inspections, combining a drone platform, tiltable payload system, and software for high-value asset inspection workflows.

Provides AI-powered mapping tools like Farsight to help defense teams generate 3D terrain and plan missions.

Finnish deeptech company building autonomous, hydrogen-powered airships for persistent aerial surveillance and intelligence, serving both defense and civilian customers. Backed by the NATO Innovation Fund, it completed two phases of NATO's DIANA accelerator program.

Climate data company deploying high-altitude balloons to gather atmospheric measurements and improve weather forecasting models.

1001 is a GCC- and London-based deep-tech startup building a localized, sovereign AI operating system for critical physical infrastructure — aviation, ports, shipping, and energy. Its platform builds live operational models of complex systems to predict failures, automate high-stakes decisions, and optimize physical workflows. Founded by ex-Scale AI operator Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh, it embeds forward-deployed engineers with Gulf infrastructure operators.

Applied Atomics is a US-based deep-tech startup that develops and operates full-stack nuclear power plants (100MW–1GW) for industrial customers, delivering dispatchable, carbon-free electricity through long-term power purchase agreements. Founded by former SpaceX and aerospace leaders, it vertically integrates Gen III+ reactor technology with in-house plant engineering, supply chain, and operations to speed deployment and lower cost. It raised an $8.3M Seed round in March 2026 led by Transition, bringing total funding to roughly $12M.

Arena Physica (formerly Arena/Arena.ai) is a New York-based AI hardware engineering company building 'electromagnetic superintelligence.' Its Atlas platform and Heaviside physics-native foundation model predict electromagnetic behavior from design geometry in milliseconds, helping customers like AMD, Anduril, and Sivers Semiconductors design, test, and validate hardware across semiconductors, aerospace, automotive, and defense.

AstroForge is a deep-space mining company focused on extracting valuable metals from asteroids, particularly platinum group metals (PGMs) and critical minerals. The company develops technology to locate, reach, and mine asteroids to provide sustainable resources for Earth and space industries.

Fusion energy startup developing modular micro-fusion reactors for compact, scalable clean power and propulsion applications.

Axiom Space is a Houston-based commercial space infrastructure company building the world's first fully commercial space station, Axiom Station, as a successor to the ISS. It also conducts private astronaut missions to the ISS and develops the AxEMU next-generation spacesuit under a NASA contract.

Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos's private aerospace company developing rockets, spacecraft, and lunar landers for commercial, government, and civil space missions. It operates New Shepard suborbital flights and is developing the orbital New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lunar lander.

Boom Supersonic is a Colorado-based aerospace company building Overture, a Mach 2.2 commercial supersonic airliner. It has also expanded into natural-gas turbines (Superpower) for data-center power, including an order from Crusoe.

A venture-backed defense tech company building mass-producible hypersonic weapons systems using modern hardware development and manufacturing processes.

Diffraqtion builds quantum-camera hardware and AI for defense, space, and machine-perception applications, capturing optical information beyond conventional imaging limits for faster sensing and classification. The MIT and University of Maryland spinout is based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and has demonstrated its technology through DARPA SBIR and NASA-backed programs.

Earth AI is a vertically integrated mineral exploration company that uses an AI-powered Mineral Targeting Platform combined with proprietary low-disturbance drilling technology to discover critical minerals like copper, lithium, and rare earths. Founded in 2017, it validates AI-predicted deposits through its own drilling and sells proven mining projects to major mining companies.

Paris-based defense tech startup founded by former MBDA engineers building AI-powered air defense systems to detect and intercept hostile drones. Its platform, Mystique, combines electrically propelled interceptors with distributed sensors and AI-driven detection for layered, low-cost interception.

Deep-tech mining and energy startup developing proprietary laser-based drilling systems to unlock Europe's critical minerals and geothermal energy at extreme depths. Building Europe's first technology-driven mining and energy platform with plans to begin selling European-mined critical raw materials by 2029.

Impulse Space is an in-space transportation and orbital maneuvering company based in Redondo Beach, California, building kick stages and vehicles to move satellites between orbits. Founded by former SpaceX propulsion lead Tom Mueller, it has reached unicorn status with $1.8B in total funding.

Isembard builds AI-powered, software-driven factories (via its MasonOS platform) to reshore high-precision manufacturing for aerospace, defence, energy, and robotics industries in Europe. It uses a franchise model to convert or launch machine shops that run on its proprietary automation and AI system.

Develops modular command-and-control platforms that integrate commercial sensors, drones, radar, and weapons systems for border security and battlefield operations.

LeydenJar develops and produces pure silicon anodes for energy-dense batteries, enabling 70% more energy storage while reducing CO2 emissions by 85% with 7-minute charging capability.

Defense technology company building unmanned defense systems and distributed manufacturing.

Nominal provides the connected hardware test stack used to capture telemetry, validate systems, and ship complex hardware faster. Its software supports aerospace, defense, and industrial teams running mission-critical test and operations workflows.

NovoLINC develops breakthrough nanostructured thermal interface materials for AI computing, data centers, and high-power electronics. Its proprietary technology achieves 10X lower thermal resistance than conventional materials, enabling better heat dissipation for next-generation semiconductor chips and cooling critical AI infrastructure.

Swiss aerospace startup developing spacecraft and orbital transfer vehicles for in-orbit satellite transportation and servicing, including inspection, life extension, and docking. Based in Villeneuve/Lausanne, Switzerland, it aims to extend satellite life and support space sovereignty.

Perseus Defense builds affordable, portable guided micro-missiles to detect, identify, and destroy hostile drones for the U.S. Department of Defense and homeland security customers. Its flagship Harpe Interceptor offers a 2km range at under $10,000 per shot, positioned as "America's Golden Dome for Drones."

Pixxel is a space data company that builds and operates a constellation of hyperspectral Earth-imaging satellites, delivering high-resolution spectral imagery and analytics across 200+ wavelengths. Its Aurora platform serves agriculture, energy, environment, mining, and defense customers, with headquarters in Bengaluru, India and a facility in El Segundo, California.

Plexus (Plexus Aerospace, Inc.) is an AI observability and telemetry platform built for hardware teams, streaming device data to detect anomalies, diagnose failures, and monitor fleets in real time. It integrates with existing time-series stores like InfluxDB, ClickHouse, and Postgres and ships an SDK that drops into firmware.

Prometheus is a Physical AI company co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj building an 'artificial general engineer' — AI that can design, experiment on, and manufacture complex physical products such as jet engines, drugs, and advanced materials. The company operates out of San Francisco, London, and Zurich, recruiting researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta. It raised a $12B round in June 2026 at a ~$41B valuation, bringing total funding above $18B.

Sierra Space designs and builds commercial spacecraft, space station modules, and orbital infrastructure, including the Dream Chaser reusable spaceplane and components for the Orbital Reef commercial space station. The company is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, with additional operations in Broomfield and Centennial, Colorado.

Starcloud is building orbital data-center infrastructure to provide large-scale compute capacity in space, leveraging abundant solar power and passive cooling.

Topological builds physics-based foundation models for CAD topology optimization, generating manufacturable, physics-aware designs. Its flagship model, UToP-v1, understands physics, geometry, and manufacturability to produce efficient designs far faster than traditional simulation-based methods.

Ulysses (legal entity Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering) builds vertically integrated autonomous underwater and surface vehicles for marine ecology restoration, offshore infrastructure inspection, and defense/ISR missions. Its modular Mako AUV, Leviathan surface vessel, and Kraken launch-and-recovery system target offshore energy, subsea telecom, port security, and allied defense customers.

Vight is an early-stage startup designing and flight-testing a two-seat electric VTOL aircraft for personal, point-to-point air travel, initially targeting rural property owners and flight schools. Founded in 2025 by Tsung Xu in Mountain View, CA, the company is actively flight-testing subscale prototypes.

Zipline designs, manufactures, and operates autonomous drones for last-mile delivery of medical supplies, retail goods, and food, aiming to make instant delivery accessible worldwide. Based in South San Francisco, it partners with health systems, retailers, and restaurant chains across the US, Africa, and beyond.