Senior Investment Casting Tooling Designer

SpaceX; Bastrop (TX); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX in Bastrop, TX is seeking a Sr. Tooling Designer for Investment Casting to own the design and development of wax injection molds and ceramic core molds for turbine blades and vanes. You will deliver tooling with extremely tight tolerances while meeting rate and cost targets.

You will collaborate with casting, materials, and manufacturing engineers from concept through production qualification, influencing yield, dimensional stability, and manufacturability of critical hardware.

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing high-precision injection molds for wax patterns and ceramics.
• 3+ years feasibility for wax patterns and ceramics.
• Experience with Siemens NX.

Responsibilities

• Design high-precision wax injection molds and ceramic core injection molds for complex turbine blades and vanes to be manufactured in-house.
• Interpret and enable mold filling simulations and apply first-principles analysis to optimize gating, venting, cooling, and shrinkage compensation.
• Account for multi-stage shrinkage (wax, ceramic, and alloy) to consistently meet stringent dimensional and metallurgical requirements.
• Own tooling designs from concept through tryout, qualification, and production release.
• Own and manage the feasibility and surfacing of critical mold components.
• Collaborate closely casting engineers, materials scientists, and vendors to troubleshoot tooling-related casting defects and improve yield.
• Apply advanced GD&T and tolerance stack-up analysis to complex airfoil geometries.
• Support design for manufacturability (DFM) initiatives to enable high-rate production while maintaining quality and cost targets.
• Interface with internal manufacturing teams and external tooling vendors to ensure designs are successfully translated into reliable production tooling.
• Drive continuous improvement of tooling standards, materials, and maintenance practices for high-volume casting operations.

Skills

High-precision mold design

Feasibility analysis

Mold design for turbine blades/vanes

Tools

Siemens NX

Job description

SpaceX in Bastrop, TX is seeking a Sr. Tooling Designer for Investment Casting to own the design and development of wax injection molds and ceramic core molds for turbine blades and vanes. You will deliver tooling with extremely tight tolerances while meeting rate and cost targets.

You will collaborate with casting, materials, and manufacturing engineers from concept through production qualification, influencing yield, dimensional stability, and manufacturability of critical hardware.