CMF Designer
Posted 25 Aug 2026
Advertised as “Senior CMF Designer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 6+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
No salary listed for this role.
Field of studyIndustrial Design, Materials Science, Transportation Design (or related)
Study levelBachelor's
Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-rich, and low-cost approach. Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches in 2027, followed by additional Haven modules. Additionally, the company recently announced Vast Satellite, a high-power satellite product line leveraging its space station components and the heritage of Haven Demo.
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, and with more than 1,000 employees and over a billion dollars in private capital, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats and systems for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.
Vast is looking for a Senior Color, Material, and Finish Designer, reporting to the Senior Manager, Industrial Design, to lead and own the development of optimized materials, colors, and details that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.
You will be working closely with industrial designers, material engineers, soft good technicians and supply chain to define the experience of our astronauts onboard our space stations such as eating, sleeping, exercise and more via cutting edge materials. You will own every aspect of the CMF design process end-to-end. This includes spaceflight material heritage research, vendor collaboration, mood board creation and visual strategy, ground up material testing and development, and final material production.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Own and evolve the Color, Material, and Finish (CMF) design strategy for the space station experience, ensuring materials, colors, and details add value to the astronaut experience while meeting engineering requirements, certification standards, and human-rated safety criteria (e.g., flammability, off-gassing/toxicity, cleanability)
- Apply deep expertise in design specifications and manufacturing requirements to ideate, visualize, and develop color, material, and graphic design concepts for transportation/aerospace-grade products, with minimal oversight