CNC Machinist

PAVE Space SA; Villeneuve (VD); Remote; CHF 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

PAVE Space SA in Villeneuve (VD) is seeking an experienced machinist to join the early-stage workshop for LYOBA engine hardware. You will own 3-axis and 5-axis CNC mills and lathes, develop tooling, cutting strategies, and fixture concepts, and contribute to shop standards and metrology.

The role demands 5+ years in precision CNC, hands-on 5-axis programming and operation, tight GD&T control (≤0.01 mm), and experience with stainless and nickel-based alloys.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of CNC machining in a precision environment.
• Hands-on 5-axis simultaneous machining experience, programming and operating.
• Track record holding geometric tolerances ≤ 0.01 mm / 0.0005 in on rotating hardware.
• Experience machining stainless and alloy steels, aluminium, and nickel-based alloys including Inconel.
• Proficiency with CAM software — Mastercam, Fusion, NX CAM, or equivalent.
• Strong GD&T fluency, including the judgement to flag ambiguous or unrealistic callouts.
• Inspection and metrology competence — calipers, micrometers, indicators, CMM.
• English, fluently; French strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Operate 3-axis and 5-axis CNC mills and CNC lathes for engine and turbopump hardware.
• Develop tooling, cutting strategies, and workholding for complex materials and geometry.
• Document machining processes from prototype to repeat builds.
• Provide manufacturability feedback in design reviews with GD&T schemes and runout assessments.
• Perform in-process inspection and support metrology, including CMM.
• Contribute to shop standards: tool libraries, fixtures, and inspection routines.

Skills

CNC machining

5-axis machining

GD&T

CAM software

Metrology

English

French

Job description

PAVE Space is building LYOBA, a heavy kick stage moving over 4-tonne payloads from LEO to high-energy orbits in under 24 hours. The engine spins on impellers and shafts with tolerances measured in hundredths of a millimeter. No one outsources work that critical when they can do it better in-house. That's why we're building the shop, and why we need you in it.

The Villeneuve workshop is coming online, the machines are being specified, and the engine campaign needs hardware in months, not quarters. You'll be one of the first machinists on the shop floor, cutting the first articles and shaping the standards that everyone after you inherits.

You will own

3-axis and 5-axis CNC mills and CNC lathes for engine and turbopump hardware

Tooling, cutting strategies, and workholding selection for complex materials and geometry

Machining process development and documentation, from prototype through repeat builds

Manufacturability feedback in design reviews — GD&T schemes, surface finishes, achievable concentricity and runout

In-process inspection and metrology, including CMM support and non-conformance resolution

Contribution to shop standards: tool libraries, fixture conventions, inspection routines

What we are looking for

5+ years of CNC machining in a precision environment

Hands-on 5-axis simultaneous machining experience, programming and operating

Track record holding geometric tolerances ≤ 0.01 mm / 0.0005 in on rotating hardware

Experience machining stainless and alloy steels, aluminium, and nickel-based alloys including Inconel

Proficiency with CAM software — Mastercam, Fusion, NX CAM, or equivalent

Strong GD&T fluency, including the judgement to flag ambiguous or unrealistic callouts

Inspection and metrology competence — calipers, micrometers, indicators, CMM

English, fluently; French strongly preferred

Nice to have: turbomachinery or aerospace rotating hardware; balancing and rotor symmetry experience; setting up or expanding a machine shop from scratch; prototype or R&D-driven environment where parts iterate fast.

You will fit if

You'd rather hold a tenth of a hundredth of a millimeter than make the part go faster.

You see a design and instinctively know what fixture, what tool, what cutting strategy will hold the tolerance.

You'd push back on a designer when the GD&T can't be machined the way it's drawn, and propose the version that can.

You take pride in surface finishes nobody asks about but the bearing notices.

You want to be hands-on with first articles and rapid rework, not running production from a comfortable distance.

The job is fully on-site in Villeneuve (VD), with our test site in Chavalon twenty minutes away. The shop is being built around you — you'll be helping spec the machines, set the tool standards, and lay out the floor. This is hard and early. If you want an established shop running mature parts, this is the wrong seat. If you want to cut the first impellers for the most ambitious space programme in Switzerland, it's the right one.

We are building to ship, grounded on real hardware, real funding, real milestones.