Design Criteria Engineer (Starshield)

SpaceX•Hawthorne, CA

11h•$100,000 - $160,000

About The Position

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. Unlike Starlink, which is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, initially focusing on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads. As a member of the Starshield Design Criteria Engineering team, you will help ensure satellite mission success and high reliability. The team draws on diverse engineering backgrounds and develops deep familiarity with hardware ranging from vehicle systems to individual components. In this design-focused role, you will apply technical expertise to major design revisions, guiding work from initial conception through design maturation, validation, safe launch, and initial on-orbit operation. The work involves creative, fast-paced development while anticipating and mitigating risk, and improving how satellites are developed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline.
At least 1 year of engineering experience; professional, project team, internship, or extracurricular experience qualifies.
Ability to work extended hours and weekends as necessary.
Ability to travel up to 10% of the time.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in an engineering discipline.
At least 5 years of professional experience in an engineering role involving design, analysis, test, or manufacturing.
Ability to be self-motivated in a demanding start-up atmosphere.
Experience with aircraft, launch vehicles, spacecraft, or other aerospace systems.
Experience designing, analyzing, testing, and fabricating electrical or mechanical systems for safety-critical or high-manufacturing-rate applications.
Experience making make-versus-buy decisions for system components.
Scripting and data analysis experience using Visual Basic, SQL, Matlab, Python, or Excel.
Experience using or maintaining enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Strong organization, attention to detail, and thoroughness.
Ongoing drive for continuous improvement.
Active Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance, or ability and willingness to obtain a Top Secret clearance, is desired but not required.

Responsibilities

Develop and own design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new satellite systems, improving these processes through stakeholder engagement.
Conduct critical peer reviews of hardware designs and acceptance and qualification test campaigns; approve plans based on technical justification that hardware is ready for launch.
Guide engineers through the SpaceX design process and ensure design criteria and requirements are followed in satellite design, manufacturing, and testing.
Provide analysis or test recommendations for engineering problems across electrical, structural, and radio frequency systems.
Use broad involvement in development efforts to provide expert assessments of vehicle maturity in program reviews and communications.
Identify development risks and implement and track mitigation plans.
Develop and own long-term strategy for satellite and infrastructure changes while providing daily engineering support and surge coverage for critical issues.
Apply comprehensive knowledge of satellite system architecture to ensure vehicle-wide and component-level changes improve rather than degrade the satellite.
Review analysis and test-validation approaches across electrical, mechanical, and radio frequency disciplines to build technical justifications for changes.
Own satellite configuration management, maintaining accurate bills of materials for as-designed and as-built configurations and their changes.
Provide input to make change implementation across satellite variants efficient and practical; identify and assign impacts across design, manufacturing, supply chain, and test, and follow up on closure.
Track and communicate change history and other system-level considerations in program reviews and investigations.
Develop specialized tools for design, analysis, and milestone tracking.

Benefits

Potential eligibility for long-term incentives in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards and discretionary bonuses.
Ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Comprehensive medical coverage.
Vision coverage.
Dental coverage.
401(k) retirement plan.
Short- and long-term disability insurance.
Life insurance.
Paid parental leave.
Various discounts and perks.
Accrual of 3 weeks of paid vacation.
10 or more paid holidays per year.
Paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy.
For employees with an active clearance who are officially briefed into a classified program, a 10% differential of up to an additional $20,000 annually.