Lead Polymer Materials Engineer — R&D & Scale-Up

SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP; Hawthorne, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock/incentives

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Medical, vision and dental coverage

401(k) retirement plan

Paid parental leave

Paid vacation and holidays

Sick leave

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Materials Engineer to lead end‑to‑end development of advanced polymeric materials for spacecraft hardware. You will partner with engineers to define targets, drive formulation, and coordinate testing across labs to ensure reliable production scale‑up.

The role requires hands‑on experience in polymer chemistries, materials formulation, and mentoring technicians, with opportunities to contribute to a broad range of adhesives, paints, coatings, and emulsions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Polymer Science, Materials Science and Engineering.
• 2+ years of professional experience in polymeric material formulation, chemical synthesis, polymer chemistry or a non-metallic materials engineering role.
• Master’s degree or PhD in Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Polymer Science, Materials Science and Engineering or a related discipline.

Responsibilities

• Partner with engineers to define material requirements, translate design criteria into technical targets, and provide clear progress updates.
• Own technical decision-making throughout development, selecting pathways delivering materials meeting design requirements.
• Investigate and resolve material failures or unexpected results, turning issues into actionable learnings.
• Act as a technical expert and project owner for polymeric material development efforts.
• Guide and mentor project specialists and technicians in formulation, testing, and process development work.
• Collaborate with engineering and production teams to ensure new materials are integrated into production.
• Lead the iterative development cycle by designing experiments, analyzing data, and defining next actions.
• Drive materials development projects from concept through qualification and scale-up.
• Coordinate with laboratories to plan testing and interpretation of results.
• Support process scale-up and manufacturability improvements for high-volume production.
• Maintain thorough technical documentation of development decisions and data.

Skills

Polymer formulation

Adhesives & coatings

Material testing

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical ownership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry/Polymer Science

Master’s or PhD preferred

Tools

FTIR

TGA

DSC

NMR

GPC

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Materials Engineer to lead end‑to‑end development of advanced polymeric materials for spacecraft hardware. You will partner with engineers to define targets, drive formulation, and coordinate testing across labs to ensure reliable production scale‑up.

The role requires hands‑on experience in polymer chemistries, materials formulation, and mentoring technicians, with opportunities to contribute to a broad range of adhesives, paints, coatings, and emulsions.