Design Reliability Engineer (Crew Starship)

InvestedintheMission; Town of Texas (WI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Design Reliability Engineer (Crew Starship) to lead design verification from concept to flight. You will develop criteria, drive cross-disciplinary problem-solving, and work with hardware teams to ensure mission success.

The role emphasizes certification interactions with government customers, direct involvement in changes that affect qualification, and hands-on experience with aerospace hardware and processes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering (ABET accredited) is required.
• 1+ years in fabrication, assembly, or testing in aerospace or related field.
• Master's degree is preferred for advanced design tasks.
• Experience with aerospace systems and design standards is a plus.
• Strong scripting and data analysis skills in Visual Basic, MATLAB, Python, and Excel.

Responsibilities

• Develop design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new systems.
• Ensure design processes meet flight, launch, and recovery system criteria.
• Provide peer review and approval of hardware designs during design reviews.

Skills

Excellent customer interface

Scripting and data analysis

Willingness to work long hours

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Master's degree in engineering

Tools

NASTRAN

ABAQUS

ANSYS

Visual Basic

MATLAB

Python

Excel

Mills and lathes

Composite layup

Job description

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

DESIGN RELIABILITY ENGINEER (CREW STARSHIP)

After 50 years, humankind will once again return to surface of the moon using SpaceX’s new vehicle, the Human Landing System (HLS) – this time for good. Leveraging the lessons learned from our flight proven Dragon spacecraft, Falcon and now Starship, HLS will usher in the next era of manned spaceflight and exploration, ultimately allowing us to establish permanent communities on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

The HLS Design Reliability team is responsible for ensuring that flight hardware and concepts-of-operations lead to successful completion of missions while meeting or exceeding both internal and external design requirements. We perform a unique engineering role, evaluating and guiding engineering designs from concept to flight. We facilitate cross-disciplinary action and problem-solving across all SpaceX programs and staff.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new systems.
• Ensure that the SpaceX design process & design criteria/requirements are being followed for flight, launch, and/or recovery systems, including:
  • Provide critical peer review and approval of hardware designs during design reviews, and of acceptance and qualification test campaigns.
  • Drive improvements to vehicle design through close integration with hardware teams.
  • Perform verification reviews hardware and systems.
• Ensure that the customer design criteria/requirements are addressed for flight systems, including:
  • Lead spacecraft certification efforts through direct interaction with U.S. Government customers.
  • Tailor and negotiating requirements and verifications to meet program goals.
  • Review vehicle changes to ensure qualification compliance.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
• 1+ years professional experience in fabrication, assembly, and/or testing.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master's degree in an engineering discipline.
• Experience with aircraft, launch vehicles, spacecraft, or other aerospace systems.
• Experience with aircraft, launch vehicle, or spacecraft requirements and standards.
• Experience with standards and requirement negotiation.
• Excellent customer interface skills.
• Experience with at least one commercial FEA package (NASTRAN, ABAQUS, or ANSYS).
• Hands on experience with various industry standard manufacturing tools, techniques and processes, including mills, lathes, electronics assembly, composite layup, etc.
• Scripting and data analysis experience using Visual Basic, Matlab, Python and Excel.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be available to work long hours and weekends as necessary.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Aff…? [e-mail].