Manufacturing Engineer, Solid Rocket Motors

Furientis; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Furientis in Los Angeles, CA is seeking a manufacturing engineer to own the solid rocket motor production line from design to day-to-day operations. You will design process layouts, tooling, work instructions, inspection plans, and NDE, ensuring safety and lean execution.

Reporting to the Head of Propulsion, you will build scalable, safe production capabilities, quantify cost and throughput, and drive continuous improvement with data-driven decisions.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Chemical, or Aerospace Engineering.
• 5+ years hands-on manufacturing engineering on solid rocket motors or analogous hazardous-process manufacturing.
• Hands-on LEAN, 5S, and value-stream mapping with defensible numeric outcomes.
• Hands-on inspection and NDE experience.
• Experience safely handling energetic and hazardous materials.
• Track record of moving a hand-built first article to repeatable production without performance loss.
• Familiar with AI-native tools for travelers, data analysis, and supplier evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Capture the current 6-inch build process into travelers, work instructions, and control plans.
• Lay out the Mojave build line with safety and throughput emphasis.
• Design and procure tooling and fixtures for motor sizes.
• Build inspection plan and transition NDE to external Level III as capacity grows.
• Operate the energetic-materials production line safely and define the line's safety culture.
• Develop and manage the motor-hardware supplier base with feedback to design.

Skills

Solid rocket motors

Lean manufacturing

NDE inspection

Safety compliance

Cost and throughput analysis

Production line design

AI coding tools usage

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical/Manufacturing/Chemical/Aerospace Engineering

Job description

America is critically deficient in production of defensive munitions- we currently produce shipborne interceptors in the few hundreds per year while our adversaries are producing offensive threats in the tens of thousands per year. Furientis was started to help solve this problem- introducing a new class of cost-effective, high production rate, interceptor missiles. We’re seeking motivated individuals who internalize this problem and are eager to apply their past experience in similar industries (aerospace, defense, automotive/racing, robotics) and out of the box thinking to solve this problem for the US and its allies.

About the Team

The Propulsion Team designs, builds, and flies the solid rocket motors that power our interceptor. We own the chemistry, the motor and grain design, the ground test campaigns, and the range operations.

About the Role

We are looking for a manufacturing engineer who will own how every solid rocket motor we ship actually gets built. That covers process design, tooling and fixtures, work instructions, inspection and NDE, the energetics line layout, and the path from R&D builds to production. You will report to the Head of Propulsion.

This is a hands-on role for an engineer who can design a safe, efficient energetics production line from a clean sheet and then run it day to day in the early phase. When a decision needs to be made, bring real process options, tooling concepts, and the cost analysis to back them up, then move quickly.

LEAN is not a buzzword here. Every step we add to the build today we pay for sixty times over at qualification and again at production. The line you design has to be safe first, lean second, and capable of holding production cadence without redesign.

What You'll Do

• Capture the current 6-inch build process (already flying motors) into travelers, work instructions, and control plans.
• Lay out the Mojave build line. Safety first, throughput second.
• Design and procure the tooling and fixtures for both motor sizes.
• Build the inspection plan. Perform NDE on early articles; transition routine NDE to an external Level III provider as build rate scales.
• Run the energetic-materials build line: handle the propellant ingredient set, the energetic and hazardous precursor chemistry, and the mix-and-cure operations safely day to day. The Energetic Materials Engineer owns formulation and characterization; you own the line that builds with it. The safety culture on the line is yours to set and defend.
• Build and own the technical side of the motor-hardware supplier base. The Head of Supply Chain owns commercial terms. Feed DFM lessons back into the development engineer’s design package.

Skills We're Hiring For

• B.S. in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Chemical, or Aerospace Engineering.
• 5+ years hands-on manufacturing engineering on solid rocket motors or analogous hazardous-process manufacturing.
• Hands-on LEAN, 5S, and value-stream mapping with cost or throughput outcomes you can defend with numbers.
• Hands-on inspection and NDE experience.
• Hands-on safety record working with energetic and hazardous materials.
• Track record of taking a hand-built first article to a repeatable production article without losing performance margin.
• AI-native working style: daily use of agentic coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or similar) for traveler authoring, process-data analysis, and supplier-comparison work.

Bonus Points For

• Direct solids build-floor experience.
• Stood up a remote or rural test and build site.
• Compliance experience for energetic operations (ATF, EPA, OSHA PSM, local AHJ).
• Volume transition: moved a tactical motor from prototype to production rate.
• Familiarity with insensitive munitions (IM) protocols.
• Out-of-domain background that gives you practical, first-principles intuition (automotive, motorsports, robotics, hobbyist high-power rocketry). We actively want people who can solve solid motor manufacturing problems without dragging legacy-prime habits with them.

Eligibility & Logistics

Location: On-site at our Los Angeles, CA HQ; remote work is not available. Monthly weekend travel for test events and supplier engagements. Clearance: A clearance is not required for this position. Must be a U.S. Person.

Equal Opportunity & Export Compliance

Furientis is an equal-opportunity employer. To comply with U.S. export control laws, employment is contingent on eligibility to access export-controlled information.