Starship Design Criteria Engineer — Cross-Disciplinary

SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Design Criteria Engineer (Starship) to join an agile systems engineering team. You will drive cross-disciplinary design improvements, review hardware concepts, and help ensure stringent qualification campaigns across avionics, propulsion, structures, and launch disciplines.

You will model and analyze development hardware, oversee testing, and contribute to rapid design cycles that advance Starship hardware toward flight readiness.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field.
• 1+ years of experience with mechanical design, manufacturing, and/or analysis (internships qualify).
• Experience with aerospace structure systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Drive improvements to vehicle design by collaborating with hardware teams.
• Review hardware designs during design reviews and support qualification testing campaigns.
• Develop tools and methods to disseminate design criteria.
• Coordinate design evolution across avionics, propulsion, structures, launch, manufacturing, and analysis teams.
• Perform rapid conceptual design, analysis, and testing cycles on development hardware (CAD modeling and testing oversight).

Skills

Mechanical design

Manufacturing

Analysis

Aerospace structures

Fatigue testing

Vibration testing

Thermal testing

Solid modeling (NX)

Finite element analysis (FEMAP)

Python

MATLAB

Excel

CAD tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

Siemens NX

FEMAP

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Design Criteria Engineer (Starship) to join an agile systems engineering team. You will drive cross-disciplinary design improvements, review hardware concepts, and help ensure stringent qualification campaigns across avionics, propulsion, structures, and launch disciplines.

You will model and analyze development hardware, oversee testing, and contribute to rapid design cycles that advance Starship hardware toward flight readiness.