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.
LEAD HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER (STARSHIP AVIONICS)
The lead hardware development engineer is responsible for leading a team of engineers composed of mechanical and build engineers working on Starship; the vehicle that will take humanity to Mars. This person will have extreme ownership for the team that owns avionics and mechanical systems on Starship through their entire design cycle. This role will partner closely with adjacent Starship engineering and production teams to continuously improve the design and manufacturability of avionics hardware for current and next-generation vehicles.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Lead a team of multi-discipline avionics engineers to enable the rapid progress of design, integration, test, and launch activities
- Drive conceptual design, architecture trades, and first order sizing. Develop design requirements where definition is lacking
- Optimize the development speed, mass, and cost on our avionics
- Perform in depth first principles analysis and FEA to assess and optimize designs
- Incorporate design for manufacturing principles, drive first article builds, and make improvements necessary to hand off subsequent builds to production
- Support production issues and drive design, process, and procedure improvements for maximum production efficiency and rate after first article build
- Design and execute development, acceptance, and qualification testing
- Drive delivery timeline through conception, design, part delivery, assembly and integration, and launch
- Work closely with analysists to develop thermal, vibration, and loading requirements and with manufacturing engineers to optimize designs for rapid manufacturability
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree in an engineering field, science, or math
- 3+ years of professional experience with design, integration, operation, and/or testing of electronic systems and components
- Experience leading teams, either formally or as part of a team project
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
- Creative problem solver that can bring multiple disciplines together with the ability to assess risk and make design and development decisions without all available data
- Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere
- Passion for advancing the commercial space industry and human spaceflight
- Experience with executive level communication
- Experience designing and building autonomous fault-tolerant robotic systems
- Self-motivated with strong multi-tasking, organizational, communication and documentation skills
- Experience with wire harnesses and associated sub-components
- Experience with mechanical design and assemblies
- Experience with software (e.g. python, SQL)
- Experience installing and troubleshooting various electronic sensors and components
- Competence with electrical test equipment (multimeters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, etc.)
- Experience with 3D CAD software (Unigraphics, Solidworks or similar)
- Knowledge of and experience in analog to digital and digital to analog converters, power supply components and design, analog testing/troubleshooting techniques, and signal integrity, layout and grounding principles
- Experience with written and visual work instructions
- Strong sense of accountability and integrity with excellent written and verbal communication skills
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
- Must be willing to travel as needed to Hawthorne, CA
- Extended hours and weekend work may be required to support critical project and mission milestones
ITAR REQUIREMENTS:
- To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should notify the Human Resources Department at (310) 363-6000.