CNC Machinist

PAVE Space; Villeneuve (VD); On-site; CHF 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

PAVE Space is building LYOBA, a heavy kick stage for 4-ton payloads, and seeks a senior CNC machinist for the Villeneuve shop. You will cut first articles on 5-axis machines, set tooling, and shape standards for high-precision rotating hardware.

You should have 5+ years of precision CNC experience, 5-axis programming/operation, and strong GD&T with exposure to stainless, alloy steels, aluminum, and nickel-based alloys including Inconel. English required; French preferred.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of CNC machining in a precision environment.
• Hands-on 5-axis simultaneous machining experience.
• Ability to hold geometric tolerances ≤ 0.01 mm on rotating hardware.
• Experience machining stainless and alloy steels, aluminum, and nickel-based alloys including Inconel.
• Proficiency with CAM software — Mastercam, Fusion, NX CAM.
• Strong GD&T fluency and ability to flag ambiguous callouts.
• Inspection and metrology competence — calipers, micrometers, indicators, CMM.
• English fluent; French strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Operate 3-axis/5-axis CNC mills and lathes for engine hardware.
• Develop tooling, cutting strategies, and workholding for complex materials and geometry.
• Machining process development and documentation from prototype through repeat builds.
• Provide manufacturability feedback in design reviews—GD&T and surface finishes.
• Perform in-process inspection and metrology; support CMM activities.
• Contribute to shop standards: tool libraries, fixture conventions, inspection routines.

Skills

5-axis machining

CNC programming

Geometric tolerance

CMM inspection

Metrology

CAM software

English

French preferred

Stainless steel

Nickel alloys

Inconel

Tools

Mastercam

Fusion

NX CAM

Job description

The parts the engine spins on. You cut them.

PAVE Space is building LYOBA, a heavy kick stage moving over 4-ton 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.

So, why now?

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.

What you'll own

• 3-axis and 5-axis CNC mills and CNC lathes for engine and turbopump hardware
• High-precision rotating components — shafts, impellers, spacers, housings, bearing seats
• 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 need

• 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, aluminum, and nickel-based alloys including Inconel
• Proficiency with CAM software — Mastercam, Fusion, NX CAM, or equivalent
• Strong GD&T fluency, including the judgment 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’ll fit right in 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 program in Switzerland, it's the right one.