Manager, Mechanical Engineering (Starship Avionics)

Spacex; Starbase (TX); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Manager of Mechanical Engineering for Starship Avionics in Starbase, Texas. This role involves leading a team responsible for the mechanical design and production readiness of avionics systems.

Key responsibilities include optimizing designs for manufacturability and collaborating with engineers to ensure the delivery timeline of avionics hardware. A Bachelor's degree in engineering and extensive experience in mechanical design is required.

Candidates will need strong leadership skills and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience with mechanical design of components or assemblies.
• 3+ years of experience as a leader with direct reports.

Responsibilities

• Own mechanical design and production readiness pipeline.
• Lead a team of mechanical engineers and improve design and manufacturability.
• Drive conceptual design, architecture trades, and requirements development.
• Design and execute development, acceptance, and qualification testing.
• Work closely with manufacturing engineers to optimize designs.

Skills

Creative problem solving

Multi-tasking

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Documentation skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, or math

Tools

Hand calculations

Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

Job description

Manager, Mechanical Engineering (Starship Avionics)

Own our Starship Avionics mechanical design and production readiness pipeline

Location: Starbase, Texas, United States

Job Tags: Hardware

About The Role

Starship Avionics Mechanical is responsible for producing an avionics system minimizing vehicle cost/mass and providing electrical sensing, actuation, and control for flying the vehicle. Avionics includes RF communication, navigation sensors, electrical actuators, video systems, propulsion sensors, and energy storage. This role leads a team of mechanical engineers, and it is within a larger avionics team of electrical engineers designing electrical system and vehicle operations. This role will partner closely with adjacent Starship engineering and production teams to continuously improve the design and manufacturability of avionics hardware for current and next‑generation vehicles. Team mission is to develop highly producible mechanical designs and packaging solutions that protect electronics from the harsh mechanical and thermal environments of launch vehicle operations.

Responsibilities:

• Extreme ownership of avionics engineers to enable the rapid progress of design, integration, test, and launch activities
• Drive conceptual design, architecture trades, and first order sizing. Develop design requirements where definition is lacking
• Optimize the development speed, mass, and cost on our avionics
• Perform in depth first principles analysis and FEA to assess and optimize designs
• Incorporate design for manufacturing principles, drive first article builds, and make improvements necessary to hand off subsequent builds to production
• Provide hands on support of production issues and drive design, process, and procedure improvements for maximum production efficiency and rate after first article build
• Design and execute development, acceptance, and qualification testing
• Drive delivery timeline through conception, design, parts, assembly and integration, and launch
• Work closely with analysts to develop thermal, vibration, and loading requirements and with manufacturing engineers to optimize designs for rapid manufacturability
• Hire and develop a team to produce reliable, high production rate, and low mass/cost avionics hardware

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering, science, or math discipline
• 5+ years of professional experience with mechanical design of components or assemblies
• 3+ years of experience as leader with direct reports

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Creative problem solver that can bring multiple disciplines together with the ability to assess risk and make design and development decisions without all available data
• Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere
• Self‑motivated with strong multi‑tasking, organizational, communication and documentation skills
• Strong sense of accountability and integrity
• Solid understanding and application of GD&T
• Proficient and frequent use of hand calculations, finite element analyses (FEA), and computer-aided designs (CAD)

Additional Requirements:

• This position is based in Starbase, TX and requires being onsite - remote work not considered
• Extended hours and weekend work may be required to support critical project and mission milestones

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 Affiantive Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to [e-mail].