Metrology Technician

PAVE Space SA.; Villeneuve (VD); On-site; CHF 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

PAVE Space SA is building a new incoming inspection function in Villeneuve (VD), Switzerland. You will define the inspection system, specify equipment, and set the standards to ensure every part from suppliers meets flight‑qualified quality.

You will own the calibration chain, GD&T measurement strategies, and traceability, working closely with Procurement, Workshop, and Manufacturing. This on-site role requires hands-on leadership to build a world-class metrology lab.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of metrology or incoming inspection engineering in aerospace, turbomachinery, medical, or another precision industry.
• Hands-on CMM programming and operation (Zeiss, Mitutoyo, Hexagon, or equivalent)
• Strong GD&T fluency, including translating drawing requirements into measurement strategy
• Working knowledge of ISO 17025 calibration discipline and traceability chains
• Experience with optical metrology, surface roughness, and form measurement
• Comfortable specifying and commissioning inspection equipment from scratch
• Track record handling supplier non-conformance, documenting, escalating, and seeing it through to resolution
• English, fluently; French strongly preferred
• Nice to have: metrology of printed parts (regen channels, internal features, X-ray CT); rocket engine or turbomachinery hardware verification; experience standing up an incoming inspection function rather than inheriting one.

Responsibilities

• Own incoming inspection of supplier hardware, castings, forgings, machined parts, AM parts, fluid components, electronics.
• Select and commission the shop's inspection equipment: CMM, optical, surface roughness, profilometry, hardness.
• Maintain calibration register and traceability chain defensible to ISO 17025.
• Manage supplier non-conformance: document, elevate, return and rework with Procurement and the Quality/PA Lead.
• Define inspection tooling for each station: gauges, fixtures, reference standards.
• Provide spot-check support for in-house machined and printed parts when needed.
• Maintain the dimensional evidence chain that supports flight qualification dossiers.

Skills

CMM programming

GD&T proficiency

Metrology experience

English fluency

French language

Tools

CMMs (Zeiss/Mitutoyo/Hexagon)

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. Engine parts, structural castings, printed thrust chambers from external bureaus, fluid components, electronics, every one of them passes through your hands before it touches a vehicle. That's the job.

Engine and structural hardware is starting to land from suppliers, the workshop is being built, and the inspection equipment that will verify everything coming through the door needs to be specified now. The incoming inspection function doesn't exist yet. You'll define it, on a timeline measured in weeks, not quarters.

You will own

• Incoming inspection of supplier hardware, castings, forgings, machined parts, AM parts from external bureaus, fluid components, electronics
• Selection and commissioning of the shop's inspection equipment: CMM, optical, surface roughness, profilometry, hardness
• The calibration register and traceability chain, defensible to ISO 17025 standards
• Supplier non-conformance: document, elevate, manage the return and rework loop with Procurement and the Quality / PA Lead
• Inspection tooling for the shop floor: what gauges, fixtures, and reference standards belong at each station
• Spot-check support for in-house machined and printed parts when the team needs an independent measurement
• The dimensional evidence chain that supports flight qualification dossiers

What we are looking for

• 5+ years of metrology or incoming inspection engineering in aerospace, turbomachinery, medical, or another precision industry
• Hands-on CMM programming and operation (Zeiss, Mitutoyo, Hexagon, or equivalent)
• Strong GD&T fluency, including translating drawing requirements into measurement strategy
• Working knowledge of ISO 17025 calibration discipline and traceability chains
• Experience with optical metrology, surface roughness, and form measurement
• Comfortable specifying and commissioning inspection equipment from scratch
• Track record handling supplier non-conformance, documenting, escalating, and seeing it through to resolution
• English, fluently; French strongly preferred
• Nice to have: metrology of printed parts (regen channels, internal features, X-ray CT); rocket engine or turbomachinery hardware verification; experience standing up an incoming inspection function rather than inheriting one.

You will fit if

You'd rather catch a bad part at the door than at integration.

You see the inspection equipment as a system; calibrated, traceable, and only as good as the discipline behind it.

You take pride in non-conformances that get resolved cleanly, not in finding things to reject.

You're comfortable telling a supplier their part is out of spec and standing behind the measurement when they push back.

You see your work as the reason the team upstream of you can trust what they're building with.

The job is fully on-site in Villeneuve (VD), with our test site in Chavalon twenty minutes away. The incoming inspection function is being built from scratch; you'll be specifying the equipment, defining the routines, and setting the standards. You'll report to the Quality / PA Lead and work closely with the Workshop, Procurement, and the Manufacturing team. This is hard and early. If you want a mature metrology lab with a calibrated equipment fleet, this is the wrong seat. If you want to build that lab 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.