Senior Tooling Designer – Investment Casting Turbine Blades

SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP; Bastrop (TX); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Tooling Designer for Investment Casting to own the design and development of wax injection molds and ceramic core molds used to produce turbine blades and vanes.

You will create tooling with tight tolerances and intricate cooling geometries while meeting aggressive rate and cost targets. As a member of the Materials Team, you will collaborate with casting, materials, and manufacturing engineers to take tooling concepts through production qualification, influencing yield

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing high-precision injection molds for wax and ceramics.
• 3+ years feasibility work 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

Wax & ceramic tooling design

Mold design for turbine blades & vanes

First-principles analysis

Tolerance stack-up / GD&T

Mold debugging / process development

CNC & mold making exposure

Tools

Siemens NX

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Tooling Designer for Investment Casting to own the design and development of wax injection molds and ceramic core molds used to produce turbine blades and vanes.

You will create tooling with tight tolerances and intricate cooling geometries while meeting aggressive rate and cost targets. As a member of the Materials Team, you will collaborate with casting, materials, and manufacturing engineers to take tooling concepts through production qualification, influencing yield