Sr. Supplier Development Engineer (Starlink)

SpaceX • Bastrop, TX

4d

About The Position

The Sr. Supplier Development Engineer owns a hardware technology, supplier, and manufacturing process from selection through high-volume production, and remains accountable for hardware performance after shipment. The role spans silicon, advanced packaging, printed circuit boards, mechanical parts, and assembly for Starlink consumer, gateway, satellite, or datacenter products. Responsibilities include choosing technologies, suppliers, manufacturing processes, and equipment, and owning yield, cost, schedule, quality, and field performance. The engineer brings up designs, factories, and processes, develops suppliers, resolves production issues on the factory floor, and makes technical decisions in collaboration with design, test, supply chain, and supplier teams. The role also owns reliability and quality work and addresses escapes into customer deployments, gateway sites, orbit, and datacenter operations. Travel up to 50%, including international travel and often on short notice, is required. The position involves regular time on factory floors and extended hours during builds, ramps, and line-down events. Applicants must meet U.S. export-control eligibility requirements or be eligible to obtain required authorizations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline.
• At least 8 years of hands-on experience in supplier development, manufacturing or process engineering, equipment engineering, quality engineering, or reliability engineering for hardware.
• Experience driving a supplier, design, or process from initial conception to production.
• Experience owning outcomes related to final yield, quality, and performance.
• Experience in at least one of the following: semiconductor or packaging; PCB fabrication or assembly; mechanical fabrication; or electromechanical assembly.
• Ability to travel up to 50%, including international travel, often on short notice.
• Availability for extended hours during builds, ramps, and line-down events.
• Regular time on factory floors at SpaceX and at suppliers.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations, to comply with export regulations.

Nice To Haves

• 10+ years of experience, including ownership of a commodity or process from selection through a high-volume ramp.
• Experience with consumer electronics, networking, satellite, or datacenter hardware produced at volumes of thousands to millions of units.
• Experience bringing up a new factory or process, including equipment selection and installation, process development, capability, and rate.
• Experience selecting technologies and suppliers for a new design, including process trade studies, make-or-buy, and second-source decisions.
• Reliability experience with life testing, HALT/HASS or equivalent, physics of failure, and corrective action tied to field returns.
• Experience using FMEA, control plans, SPC, DOE, MSA, and structured root-cause methods as engineering tools.
• International supplier travel experience and sound judgment when representing SpaceX in a factory.

Responsibilities

• Own hardware from selection to scale for Starlink consumer, gateway, satellite, or datacenter products, including technology, supplier, process, equipment, yield, cost, schedule, and field performance.
• Select suppliers capable of meeting program quality and production-rate needs, develop their processes, and change suppliers when the technical path is inadequate.
• Choose manufacturing processes and equipment; define process windows, control plans, and evidence of capability before production rate.
• Bring up new designs, factories, and processes; work on the factory floor to debug equipment and close yield and rate gaps.
• Perform failure analysis, develop test and screen strategies, conduct process FMEA, drive corrective action, and establish a field-to-factory feedback loop that improves the product.
• Make and own technical decisions with design, test, supply chain, and supplier teams, including accountability for field results.
• Scale proven processes and stop approaches that will not scale.
• Own escapes into customer deployments, gateway sites, orbit, and datacenter operations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior