Senior Space Solar Manufacturing Engineer

Starpath; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Dental & Vision

Retirement plans

PTO & holidays

Career development

Impactful work

Job summary

Starpath is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer for the Starlight Solar line in Los Angeles (Hawthorne, CA). You will own critical solar manufacturing processes from development through high-rate production and mentor a growing team.

You'll drive yield, rate, and cost, design precision tooling, and lead automation initiatives to scale space solar hardware for Earth, Moon, and Mars missions. Requires 6+ years in manufacturing/process design and cross-functional leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in aerospace, manufacturing, materials, mechanical, electrical, or related engineering.
• 6+ years manufacturing and process design experience with ownership from development to production.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams (design, quality, operations, supply chain).

Responsibilities

• Own technical strategy for CIC integration, interconnect welding, coverglass attach, and panel layup from development through high-rate production.
• Drive yield, rate, and cost across the solar manufacturing line, setting and hitting performance targets.
• Design and qualify precision tooling and automated cells that protect fragile hardware, eliminate assembly error, and minimize cycle time.
• Lead automation initiatives for novel processes to ensure repeatability at scale.
• Partner with design engineering to shape solar array architecture through DFM to reduce cost and complexity downstream.
• Stand up in-process inspection systems to catch defects at the source and improve first-pass yield.
• Lead the handoff of solar hardware from development into production, ensuring processes are documented and scalable.
• Mentor manufacturing engineers and grow the team’s capability as the line scales.
• Push back on unnecessary complexity and streamline workflows.

Skills

6+ years of manufacturing and process?

Ownership of processes from dev toprod

Leading cross-functional teams

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in aerospace, manufacturing, materials, mechanical, electrical, or related engineering

Tools

SQL

Job description

Starpath is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer for the Starlight Solar line in Los Angeles (Hawthorne, CA). You will own critical solar manufacturing processes from development through high-rate production and mentor a growing team.

You'll drive yield, rate, and cost, design precision tooling, and lead automation initiatives to scale space solar hardware for Earth, Moon, and Mars missions. Requires 6+ years in manufacturing/process design and cross-functional leadership.