Thermal Engineer (Raptor Components)

SpaceX • Hawthorne, CA

3d • $100,000 - $135,000

About The Position

The Raptor Components team conceptualizes, models, drafts, and supports mechanical and electro-mechanical control assemblies that run the Raptor engine. On this team, you will design and ensure success of these assemblies by maintaining the temperature of sensitive components, while being located near 70–5000K fluids. We design, analyze, build, test, and fly components for simplicity, manufacturability, and reliability in extreme thermal, pressure, and vibe environments. You will own the relationship between your hardware and suppliers, customers, and test teams while spearheading your own projects. You will provide input into vehicle architecture trades and take a lead role in design and flight readiness on Starship, the vehicle that will transform Earth orbit operations, normalize space technology, and make humanity multi-planetary.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering discipline or physics.
• 1+ years of experience designing and analyzing thermal systems via professional work experience, project/research-based student experience, or a combination of both.

Nice To Haves

• Experience applying heat transfer principles (conduction, convection, radiation) and thermal modeling tools (e.g., finite element analysis or computational fluid dynamics software).
• Experience applying thermal management techniques from electronics cooling (e.g., heat sinks, phase-change materials, or liquid cooling loops) to transferable to extreme (high and low) temperature aerospace applications.
• Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for problem solving, and desire to optimize modern rocket production and launch processes.
• Strong leadership project management skills and experience, and effective communication of technical concepts across multi-disciplinary teams
• Master's degree or 1+ years of professional experience in mechanical or aerospace engineering.
• Experience designing, building, testing and troubleshooting mechanical systems.
• Understanding of fundamental principals in fluid systems, solid mechanics, and/or electrical systems.
• Hands-on experience with fluid, gas, mechanical, high voltage, or test instrumentation and control
• Knowledge of electro-mechanical devices, gears, actuators, motors, valves, regulators, or pumps

Responsibilities

• Generate and improve CAD, engineering drawings, analysis, component specifications, and risk assessments to maximize vehicle reliability.
• Spearhead root cause investigations that arise in development, production, test, integration and launch, implementing corrective actions, proactively seeking out hardware issues, and implementing solutions early.
• Develop state-of-the-art, manufacturable, 99.99% reliable flow control devices. Question requirements, delete parts and processes, simplify/optimize, accelerate, and automate component deliveries.
• Safely implement thorough component testing and checkouts across multiple build, test, and launch sites.
• Set the standard for rigorous component design and qualification testing, increasing scrutiny as the vehicle program matures in pursuit of commercial and crewed orbital missions.
• Partner with supply chain, manufacturing, testing, and flight teams to achieve SpaceX’s most reliable, highest rate components, striving for high factory yield and automotive volume/cost.
• Coordinate team of peers through informal leadership and self-directed program organization to achieve goals. Assign clear responsibilities, motivating and holding teammates accountable for execution.
• Be chief engineer, collaborating with peer/engine/vehicle teams to arrive at the simplest solution for the program goals. Inform system-level architecture, with component capabilities and vulnerabilities in mind, to minimize cost of payload to orbit.

Benefits

• You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks.
• You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year.
• Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees