Launch Reliability Engineer (Launch Pads & Recovery)

About the role

The Launch Reliability organization at SpaceX is an inclusive, inter-disciplinary team that is committed to the reliability of flight and ground components and promotes efficient and reliable operational processes. Your breadth of exposure as a Launch Reliability Engineer will be immense as you collaborate with other core groups at SpaceX, guiding the hardware from design to production, operation, and maintenance.

You use data to understand the factors that drive reliability, and support quality objectives in design and development teams to drive improvements in reliability in manufacturing, test and flight. You have the ability to dive deep into the details to identify, understand, and solve difficult technical problems and also utilize a system level approach to prioritize issues for the vehicle as a whole.

You thrive in a hands-on environment and will spend time in the office, on the factory floor, and on the launch pads and recovery decks to execute on the mission to make humanity interplanetary. You will partner with Flight Reliability, Launch Engineering, and Launch Operations teams at SpaceX to ensure mission success as SpaceX marches towards crewed spaceflight and Mars colonization.

You will also have the opportunity to work on diverse projects including our Falcon 9, Dragon and Starship programs.

Responsibilities

• Reliably launch astronauts and other payloads by ensuring the systems, processes, and infrastructure critical to launch operations and rocket recovery are efficiently designed, maintained, and executed
• Interact with the various disciplines responsible for the development and build of Starship and Falcon launch pad systems to ensure optimized process health
• Identify high-risk processes and problems during launch pad and recovery system refurbishment and integrated operations, and proactively implement improvements to these processes to ensure operational excellence
• Find smart solutions to the biggest problems by leading root cause and corrective action investigations
• Maintain a feedback loop to drive hardware inputs that enable a reliable and rapid launch cadence; using data to make the quality landscape transparent and drive prioritization of resolving high impact issues
• Participate in preliminary design review (PDR)/critical design review (CDR) and work with design reliability to ensure design for quality (DFQ), design for manufacturability (DFM), risk quantification/mitigation, and that appropriate test validation methods and inspection techniques, including nondestructive evaluation methods have been considered
• Be dedicated to adopting a Lean approach to quality without compromising safety or reliability

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline or physics
• 1+ years of experience in quality, manufacturing, or design engineering role

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline (e.g. aerospace, mechanical, etc.)
• Experience supporting production of complex electro-mechanical, mechanical or composites systems in high volume work centers and/or during production ramp-up
• Knowledge of quality tools such as Lean principles, Six Sigma, root cause analysis and corrective action, advanced product quality planning (APQP), metrology, process failure mode and effects analysis (PFMEA), control plans, and various problem solving approaches

Additional Requirements

• Ability to pass Air Force background check for Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg
• Available to work extended hours, nights, and weekends when required by mission milestones
• Position may require standing, bending and working directly with hardware on the floor for extended periods of time

Itar Requirements

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.