Propulsion Build Engineer (Miranda)

Firefly Aerospace; Town of Texas (WI); On-site; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Join an innovative company at the forefront of the space industry! This role involves leading a dynamic team to build and deliver advanced propulsion systems. You will tackle complex engineering challenges and drive improvements in manufacturing processes. If you thrive in high-stakes environments and are passionate about aerospace engineering, this opportunity is perfect for you. Contribute to groundbreaking projects and be part of a mission that aims to revolutionize space travel. With a focus on collaboration and excellence, your efforts will directly impact the success of our cutting-edge technology and operations.

Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Parental Leave

Educational Reimbursement

Short Term Disability

Pet Insurance

Flexible PTO Options

Qualifications

• 4+ years in engineering or manufacturing, preferably with complex assembly builds.
• Strong leadership and communication skills are essential for this role.

Responsibilities

• Lead engine build activities, ensuring quality and performance standards.
• Drive manufacturing issues to resolution with cross-functional teams.

Skills

Leadership Skills

Problem-Solving Skills

Communication Skills

Attention to Detail

Organizational Skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering

Advanced degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering

Tools

Jira

Python

Grafana

Power BI

Job description

Career Opportunities with Firefly Aerospace

Come be a part of the 21st Century Space Race!

Careers At Firefly Aerospace

Current job opportunities are posted here as they become available.

As an end-to-end responsive space company, Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. Our small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles allow us to service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. We utilize carbon composite structures, patented propulsion technologies, and common components across our vehicles to iterate quickly, improve reliability, and deliver payloads at a lower cost.

SUMMARY

The Miranda propulsion manufacturing team fabricates, builds, troubleshoots, and delivers complete Miranda engines. We use technical expertise, extreme ownership, and proactive communication to lead this highly cross-functional production team in overcoming technical and schedule obstacles to meet tight timelines. Our build engineers are leaders who love hands-on problem solving in high visibility, high impact situations. We are directly responsible for ensuring the reliable performance and on-time delivery of our Miranda engines.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the execution of all engine build activities throughout the fabrication and integration processes with a relentless focus on deliveries while maintaining quality and performance standards.
• Lead a cross-functional team of design engineers, production planners, manufacturing engineers, and quality engineers to resolve any manufacturing issues and deliver hardware.
• Drive changes and risks in the build process to closure to ensure we are constantly delivering the most advanced and capable propulsion systems possible.
• Design and execute structured communication plans to ensure all production stakeholders can make productive decisions.
• Develop and qualify new production processes to transition develop programs to rate production.
• Make real-time engineering decisions in coordination with design engineering throughout the build process.
• Continuously improve the build process through lean principles, efficiency improvements, and automation initiatives.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field.
• 4+ years of relevant experience in engineering, manufacturing, or production environments, preferably with complex assembly builds.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to manage and motivate cross-functional teams.
• Excellent communication skills with a focus on proactive updates and risk management.
• Ability to make engineering decisions under pressure, ensuring that production standards are met.
• Working knowledge of fabrication and manufacturing techniques such as machining, welding, inspection, non-destructive evaluation, and assembly integration.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to take initiative and work independently.
• Attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
• Advanced degree in mechanical, aerospace, or equivalent field is a plus.
• Familiarity with software packages such as Python, Grafana, Power BI, or equivalent data reduction and visualization packages.
• In-depth knowledge of manufacturing processes, change management, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Experience with tools such as Jira and other project management or configuration management software.
• Experience with capacity modeling, process mapping, and fault analysis.
• Experience performing failure analysis, root cause and corrective action experience.
• Experience in aerospace, rocket engineering, or similar high-stakes, high-performance production environments.
• Experience as a Manufacturing Engineer, Lead Manufacturing Engineer, or a Program Manager with direct hands-on build oversight.

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, pet Insurance, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on 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.