Principal Launch Engineer

SpaceX • Cape Canaveral, FL

312d

About The Position

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future with humanity exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one without. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars. The Principal Launch Engineer position is an aggressively-paced, constantly-evolving, results-focused engineering role. The team designs, builds, activates, modifies, improves, and maintains the fluid systems that fuel the most powerful rocket in the world. This role involves daily problem-solving and hands-on work in a development-focused environment, where engineers can see their designs come to life immediately.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or other engineering discipline
• 10+ years of professional experience with design, build, or manufacturing of mechanical systems

Nice To Haves

• 10+ years of manufacturing design experience
• 10+ years of professional experience in the field of aerospace/mechanical engineering
• 10+ years of experience with geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) concepts
• Experience with fluid dynamics, finite element, or related computer-based modeling
• Experience with large steel structure construction (civil, naval, or mechanical)
• Experience designing and/or operating pressurized systems (cryogenic, hydraulic, compressed gases)
• Experience leading operation-critical part mechanical design, including basic structures calculations and design considerations
• Experience with finite element analysis (FEA) software packages
• Process development, facility and line layouts, error-proofing
• Experience with Unigraphics NX and Teamcenter CAD and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems
• Detailed knowledge of Siemens NC or similar CAD and PLM packages
• Prior experience with developing, maintaining and improving welding processes
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills

Responsibilities

• Analyze, design, and build systems that support critical rocket launches and testing
• Cradle-to-grave project ownership through hosting design reviews, project decision justification, equipment procurement, and coordination and assistance of the construction of your ideas
• Design modular hardware capable of being manufactured at volume for future launch sites across the world
• Utilize interdisciplinary engineering skills in fields of system-level process design and initial sizing, detailed pressurized fluid and thermal analysis, structural engineering, materials, and component selection, and cost/schedule optimization
• Work directly with technicians and support groups to build your designs, and fix real-world problems on the fly
• Maintain a tight feedback loop with the launch operations team to rapidly alter plans as necessary to meet tight deadlines
• Activate and troubleshoot equipment to achieve design objectives and iterate system maintenance strategies to reduce future downtimes
• Independently evaluate complex problems and arrive at solutions to seemingly impractical problems that best support the program
• Hands-on approach to tackling daily field projects necessary to keep the company launching rockets

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree