Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer (Starship Components)

SpaceX•Hawthorne, CA

About The Position

The Propulsion Components team develops spacecraft and launch vehicle components for the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle. The engineer owns hardware from concept through delivery, with deep responsibility for component functionality, design, and requirements. Components are designed, developed, and characterized for simplicity, manufacturability, and reliability in extreme environments, including temperatures from 80 to 800 K and pressures beyond 800 bar. The role leads component projects and manages the relationship between vehicle hardware and systems teams and manufacturing teams. It applies analysis, development testing, and mechanical design to contribute to vehicle architecture trades and lead design and flight readiness for Starship. Components include fluid-control devices such as valves and regulators, mechanisms such as flap, fin, and payload-door actuators, and other electromechanical devices.

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.
Must meet U.S. export-control eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations.

Nice To Haves

Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for problem solving, and a desire to optimize modern rocket production and launch processes.
At least 5 years of experience designing and analyzing mechanical systems through professional work, project- or research-based student experience, or a combination.
A 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 effectively 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, and 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 design, analysis, production layout, assembly, environmental testing, and vehicle integration.
Question requirements and simplify, optimize, accelerate, and automate component deliveries by removing unnecessary parts and processes.
Validate hardware and design reliability through shock, vibration, thermal-cycling, pressure-cycling, and climatic-exposure testing.
Design experiments to ground analysis, develop test fixturing, and prepare technical reports based on results.
Partner with manufacturing, production, testing, and supply-chain teams to increase component build rate, factory yield, and production volume while reducing cost.
Accelerate component delivery to support more than one fully stacked launch vehicle per month.
Generate and maintain detailed drawings, component specifications, analyses, and risk assessments.
Lead root-cause investigations arising during development, production, testing, integration, and launch, and implement corrective actions to prevent repeat failures.
Set standards for rigorous component design and qualification testing, increasing scrutiny as the vehicle matures for commercial and crewed orbital missions.
Target zero in-flight propulsion-component anomalies, reduce component-caused production and launch delays, and minimize containments.
Act as chief engineer in collaboration with stage and component teams, identify simple vehicle solutions, and inform system-level architecture using component capabilities and vulnerabilities to minimize payload-to-orbit cost.

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 insurance.
Dental insurance.
401(k) retirement plan.
Short- and long-term disability insurance.
Life insurance.
Paid parental leave.
Various other discounts and perks.
Up to 3 weeks of accrued paid vacation.
10 or more paid holidays per year.
Paid sick leave pursuant to company policy and applicable law.