Senior Polymers Materials Engineer — Scale-Up & Failure Expert

SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP; Bastrop, Northern (TX, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX seeks a Principal Materials Engineer, Polymers (Starlink) in Bastrop, TX to develop and evaluate polymeric materials for Starlink products. You will support polymer selection with design engineers to ensure cost-effective, reliable parts, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to solve complex material challenges across generations of products.

The role requires advanced materials knowledge, extensive polymer testing, and experience scaling from prototype to production, including

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in materials science or an engineering discipline
• 10+ years of experience with characterizing, testing, and evaluating the performance of thermoplastics, elastomers, and/or adhesives
• Master's degree or PhD in materials science, materials engineering, or polymer engineering

Responsibilities

• Develop, test and evaluate polymeric materials used across Starlink products
• Collaborate with design engineers to establish inputs for cost-effective production
• Work with engineers and technicians to solve material and processing challenges
• Lead scale-up from prototype to production of injection molded parts
• Conduct root cause failure investigations as SME for failure mechanisms

Skills

Polymer characterization

Materials testing

Failure analysis

Thermoplastics & elastomers

Education

Bachelor's in materials science or engineering

Advanced degree in materials/ polymer engineering

Tools

SEM-EDS

FTIR

DSC

TGA

Rheometry

Optical microscopy

Mechanical testing

Job description

SpaceX seeks a Principal Materials Engineer, Polymers (Starlink) in Bastrop, TX to develop and evaluate polymeric materials for Starlink products. You will support polymer selection with design engineers to ensure cost-effective, reliable parts, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to solve complex material challenges across generations of products.

The role requires advanced materials knowledge, extensive polymer testing, and experience scaling from prototype to production, including