Launch Reliability Engineer

LAUNCH RELIABILITY ENGINEER

The Launch Reliability organization at SpaceX is an inclusive, inter-disciplinary team that is committed to the reliability of flight & 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 in the lab 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 vehicle, payload and spacecraft processing is efficiently designed and executed
• Interact with the various disciplines responsible for the development and build of Falcon 9, Dragon, Starship, etc. and launch pad systems to ensure optimized process health
• Identify high-risk processes and problems during vehicle processing or refurbishment, 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
• Determine high-risk processes and problems during vehicle processing or refurbishment, and proactively implement improvements to these processes to ensure operational excellence
• 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
• Dedicated to adopting a Lean approach to quality without compromising safety or reliability

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering or STEM discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry)
• 2+ years professional or internship 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