Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer (Starship Components)

SpaceX•Hawthorne, CA

2h•$135,000 - $215,000

About The Position

SpaceX’s Propulsion Components team develops spacecraft and launch vehicle components for the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle. The engineer owns component functionality, design, and requirements from concept through delivery, developing and characterizing fluid and electromechanical hardware for simplicity, manufacturability, reliability, and extreme operating environments. The role bridges vehicle hardware and systems teams with manufacturing, leads component projects, contributes to vehicle architecture trades, and supports design and flight readiness for Starship.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in physics or an engineering discipline.
At least 5 years of mechanical design and hands-on manufacturing experience.
Must be willing to travel less than 25%.
Extended hours and weekend work may be required to support critical project and mission milestones.

Nice To Haves

Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for problem solving, and interest in optimizing rocket production and launch processes.
At least 5 years of experience designing and analyzing mechanical systems through professional work, student projects or research, or a combination.
Master’s degree or at least 5 years of professional experience in mechanical or aerospace engineering.
Experience designing, building, testing, and troubleshooting mechanical systems.
Strong project-management skills and ability to communicate technical concepts across multidisciplinary teams.
Hands-on experience with fluid, gas, thermal, high-voltage, or electronics systems.
Leadership experience on a project or research team.
Experience using test instrumentation and control components, such as pressure transducers, thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors, relays, or solenoid valves.
Knowledge of electromechanical devices, gear trains, actuators, motors, valves, regulators, or other fluid and position-control devices.
Understanding of fundamental principles of solid mechanics and dynamics.

Responsibilities

Develop manufacturable flow-control devices, mechanisms, and electromechanical devices for Starship and Super Heavy, owning work from design and analysis through production layout, assembly, environmental testing, and vehicle integration.
Question requirements, simplify and optimize designs and processes, and accelerate or automate component deliveries.
Validate hardware reliability through shock, vibration, thermal-cycling, pressure-cycling, and climatic-exposure testing.
Design experiments, develop test fixturing, and prepare technical reports based on results.
Partner with manufacturing, production, testing, and supply-chain teams to increase component build rates, factory yield, and production volume while reducing cost.
Generate and maintain detailed drawings, component specifications, analyses, and risk assessments.
Lead root-cause investigations arising in development, production, testing, integration, and launch, and implement corrective actions.
Set standards for component design and qualification testing as the vehicle matures toward commercial and crewed orbital missions.
Target zero in-flight propulsion-component anomalies and reduce component-caused production and launch delays and containments.
Collaborate with stage and component teams as a chief engineer to identify simple vehicle solutions and inform system-level architecture, considering component capabilities and vulnerabilities.

Benefits

Potential eligibility for long-term incentives in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards.
Potential discretionary bonuses.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan with the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount.
Comprehensive medical coverage.
Vision coverage.
Dental coverage.
401(k) retirement plan.
Short- and long-term disability insurance.
Life insurance.
Paid parental leave.
Various other discounts and perks.
Three weeks of paid vacation may accrue.
Eligibility for 10 or more paid holidays per year.
Paid sick leave under company policy.