Long Beach, California, has more open space-engineering roles than any other US city right now. 635 active postings across six companies (Rocket Lab, Vast, Relativity, and three smaller). That's more than Hawthorne. More than the Front Range in Colorado. More than Cape Canaveral.
If you're picturing the US space industry as SpaceX in Hawthorne plus a scattered assortment of everything else, the map is more concentrated than that.
The top space hubs
Every US city with at least 30 active space postings across the catalog:
| City | Roles | Companies | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach, CA | 635 | 6 | Rocket Lab + Relativity + Vast |
| Hawthorne, CA | 519 | 2 | SpaceX HQ |
| Bastrop, TX (Starbase area) | 382 | 1 | SpaceX Starbase |
| Redmond, WA | 317 | 1 | Blue Origin adjacent |
| Starbase, TX | 260 | 1 | SpaceX Starbase (separate listing) |
| Denver, CO | 159 | 3 | True Anomaly, Voyager, Sierra-adjacent |
| Los Angeles, CA | 135 | 4 | Anduril + smaller |
| San Francisco, CA | 125 | 5 | Loft Orbital, Muon, Planet |
| Costa Mesa, CA | 123 | 1 | Anduril's space division |
| El Segundo, CA | 119 | 4 | Varda, Inversion, Turion, Icarus |
| Cape Canaveral, FL | 84 | 3 | SpaceX + Blue Origin operations |
| Louisville, CO | 71 | 2 | Sierra Space |
| Centennial, CO | 66 | 1 | Sierra Space HQ |
| Playa Vista, CA | 57 | 1 | Anduril office |
| Houston, TX | 54 | 2 | Axiom Space + NASA-adjacent |
| Woodinville, WA | 51 | 1 | Blue Origin R&D |
What each hub is actually about
Long Beach — Multiple public and near-public launch companies (Rocket Lab + Relativity), a space station company (Vast), plus adjacent defense-space work. 635 roles across 6 companies means real diversity. If you want space engineering with actual employer optionality (not one dominant company), Long Beach is now the best single US city for it.
Hawthorne — SpaceX headquarters. 519 roles. It's SpaceX and effectively nothing else. If you want to work for SpaceX, you're going to be in Hawthorne, McGregor (Texas), Cape Canaveral, or Redmond.
Bastrop + Starbase, TX — SpaceX's growing Texas footprint. Combined 642 roles at Starbase alone. Starship testing and production. This is the fastest-growing SpaceX site.
Redmond, WA — Not SpaceX. This is Blue Origin's engineering headquarters (their Kent, WA HQ site plus adjacent facilities). If you want Blue Origin, Redmond is where you'll live.
Denver — Front Range defense-space. True Anomaly, Voyager Technologies, adjacent to Sierra Space at Louisville and Centennial. Denver + Louisville + Centennial combined = 296 roles at 5 companies. This is the biggest defense-space concentration in the country outside of Southern California.
Los Angeles + Costa Mesa + Playa Vista + El Segundo — Southern California space corridor. Combined 434 roles across multiple companies. Anduril's space division at Costa Mesa is the biggest single employer, but El Segundo has become a real space-startup hub (Varda, Inversion, Turion, Icarus, Impulse Space).
Cape Canaveral, FL — SpaceX + Blue Origin launch operations. Real hiring but heavily launch-operations focused, not R&D or engineering. If you want to work at launch pads, this is where.
San Francisco — Software-forward space companies. Planet Labs, Loft Orbital, Muon Space, plus smaller. Very different profile from Long Beach or Denver — you're building satellite operations software, not launch vehicles.
Houston — Axiom Space plus NASA Johnson Space Center adjacency. Different flavor: commercial space station work with strong NASA relationships. Roles skew toward mission operations and human spaceflight.
Louisville + Centennial, CO — Sierra Space's HQ area. Dream Chaser development. Colorado's "space town" status is real but concentrated at Sierra.
The geographic story
Southern California is by far the largest space hub in the country. Hawthorne + Long Beach + LA + Costa Mesa + El Segundo + Playa Vista + Cape-adjacent SoCal offices adds up to over 1,900 active roles. That's more than the rest of the US space industry combined.
Front Range Colorado (Denver + Louisville + Centennial + adjacent) is the second-largest, at ~300 roles across 5+ companies. Growing fast. If you want defense-space specifically, Colorado is arguably the best geographic bet outside of Southern California.
The Bay Area is smaller than most engineers assume. Combined roles across San Francisco + adjacent = ~125 in space. The Bay Area is still a software-adjacent space hub but not a general-purpose space hub.
Texas is basically SpaceX Starbase + Houston. Big numbers, narrow employer diversity.
What's not here
Cities you might expect to be in this list but aren't:
- Boston — very small space presence
- Seattle — Blue Origin is nearby (Kent) but Seattle proper has minimal space
- New York — negligible
- Washington DC — has some space policy jobs but few engineering roles
- Silicon Valley — smaller than the mental model suggests
- Chicago — negligible
What to do with this
Three practical calls if you're weighing a move for space work.
Long Beach is the most flexible single-city choice. Multiple employers, real cost-of-living advantage over the Bay Area, and if the first offer doesn't work out you have alternatives within a 30-minute drive.
Denver + Front Range is the best single-region choice if you want defense-space specifically. True Anomaly, Voyager, Sierra Space, adjacent to Ursa Major nearby. Colorado's total space count is smaller than SoCal but the employer diversity is high.
Hawthorne or Starbase (Texas) is worth it if and only if you want to work for SpaceX specifically. Otherwise, don't move for space to either city — you'll have essentially one employer option.
Methodology
Data pulled from active job listings on MadeForSpace.io as of April 22, 2026. City names come from the first comma-separated segment of each job posting's location string. I filtered to cities with at least 30 active postings. "Companies" counts distinct employers with active roles in that city.
Browse the full catalog sorted by geography if you want to drill into a specific city.