Senior Nozzle Manufacturing Engineer – Aerospace Propulsion

Castelion Corporation; Torrance, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous benefits package

Job summary

Castelion Corporation in Torrance, CA, is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer to own nozzle manufacturing for solid rocket motors. You will lead development, qualification, and production ramp of nozzle assemblies—including throats, exit cones, insulation, and motor interfaces—for hypersonic programs.

Collaborate with Design, Quality, Tooling, Automation, Production, and Site Operations to deliver repeatable, high-reliability hardware from development builds through high-rate production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant engineering field.
• 6–10+ years aerospace/defense manufacturing experience.
• 3+ years hands-on nozzle/propulsion hardware manufacturing.
• Proven ability to qualify processes and transition from development to production.

Responsibilities

• Own manufacturing processes for SRM nozzles and related hardware, including throat and exit-cone fabrication, insulation, structural bonding, machining, assembly, and motor-interface integration.
• Develop and qualify manufacturing sequences, fixtures, work instructions, and control plans that meet dimensional, thermal-structural, and reliability requirements.
• Execute PFMEA, SPC, and statistical process control to improve first-pass yield, cycle time, and cost.
• Define in-process inspection, metrology, and NDE strategies for nozzle geometry, bond-line quality, insulation integrity, and interface features.
• Partner with Tooling, Automation & Controls on machining fixtures, assembly jigs, handling equipment, and automated or semi-automated work cells.
• Support new product introduction and design changes with producibility input on materials, tolerances, stack-ups, and assembly sequence.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for dimensional escapes, bond or insulation defects, machining issues, and integration problems.
• Author and maintain travelers, cure or process profiles, and quality records compliant with AS9100 and customer requirements.
• Collaborate with suppliers on throat materials, composites, insulation, and machined components; drive incoming quality and process capability.
• Support equipment qualification and production ramp at the Project Ranger campus in New Mexico.

Skills

Precision machining

Composite fabrication

Metal fabrication

Insulation application

Structural bonding

CAD (SolidWorks/NX)

GD&T

PFMEA

SPC

Fixture concepting

NDE/metrology

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing/Aerospace/Mechanical engineering or related

Tools

SolidWorks

NX

CMM

Laser trackers

Job description

Castelion Corporation in Torrance, CA, is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer to own nozzle manufacturing for solid rocket motors. You will lead development, qualification, and production ramp of nozzle assemblies—including throats, exit cones, insulation, and motor interfaces—for hypersonic programs.

Collaborate with Design, Quality, Tooling, Automation, Production, and Site Operations to deliver repeatable, high-reliability hardware from development builds through high-rate production.