Production Engineer (Starship Electronics)

Location: Hawthorne, CA

Department: Starship Electronics Production - Hawthorne

PRODUCTION ENGINEER (STARSHIP ELECTRONICS)

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

The Starship Electronics team has taken the challenge to develop hardware for the Starship spacecraft and SuperHeavy booster. In this role you will support production of all electrical systems, from communications to power, navigation, and even crewed life support. This will be one of the most sophisticated and largest vehicles flown in space, where low cost and high production rates are required to enable the mission.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop, standardize, and continuously improve process chains required to deliver Starship electronics components
• Design and deliver new factory stations and production assets, aimed at expanding capability, reducing cycle time, and improving yield
• Design and deliver mechanical tooling required to build, test, and deliver avionics hardware. Tooling to include both custom mechanical tools (e.g. fixturing) as well as capital automation equipment
• Develop design-for-manufacturing (DFM) guidelines and maintain a collaborative relationship with design engineering to co-design the product and factory
• Act as an expert on low-cost, high-reliability manufacturing techniques for aerospace electro-mechanical components
• Guide high-level vehicle architecture and requirements trade studies to reduce vehicle cost and ease of production
• Analyze root cause and provide corrective actions for process escapes or process variability, including mechanical processes on the final assembly (e.g. fastener torque) and electrical processes on printed circuit boards (e.g. soldering)

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, or industrial engineering
• 1+ years of manufacturing engineering experience via project team, research, internship, and/or professional experience

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience with sharing information and influencing others across organizational lines
• Experience working both autonomously and as a team in a highly demanding environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to make presentations to engineering, team members, internal customers and management
• Proficient in mechanical design tools and analysis, including but not limited to mechanical CAD, FEA, GD&T/drawing creation, and tolerance stack analysis
• Experience with PCB fabrication or PCBA assembly processes, equipment, and design-for-manufacturing (DFM) requirements
• Experience with electro-mechanical assembly processes, equipment, and design-for-manufacturing (DFM) requirements
• Experience designing production systems for controllers, sensors, cameras, optics, or long-range RF communications, as demonstrated by successful fielding of multiple products
• Experience with process failure modes and effects analysis (PFMEA), with demonstrated corrective actions to reduce process risk and increase process control
• Experience introducing capital equipment / automating processes, including process control and preventative maintenance plans
• Experience working in a high-volume or high-reliability manufacturing environment
• Experience reducing processing cost through cycle time, labor time, reliability / yield, or other forms of value stream evaluation
• Proficiency in pulling and manipulating data via one or more programming languages (eg. SQL, python)

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Extended hours and weekend work may be required to support critical project milestones
• Occasional travel may be required to Starbase, Texas and/or off-site vendor locations

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay Range:
Production Engineer/Level I: $95,000.00 - $115,000.00/per year
Production Engineer/Level II: $110,000.00 - $130,000.00/per year

 

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.