The Role
Owns industrial CT inspection for aerospace flight hardware, including technique development, validation, acceptance criteria, data interpretation, procedures, equipment commissioning, supplier oversight, and compliance. Partners with design, manufacturing, and quality teams to improve inspectability and defect detection. Supports failure investigations, nonconformance dispositions, CT capability development, and flight hardware record traceability. Trains and mentors NDT personnel and serves as the technical authority for CT operations.
Summary Generated by Built In
As a CT Engineer Level III at Impulse Space, you will own industrial computed tomography (CT) inspection for our flight hardware. You will be the technical authority for CT. That means developing and qualifying CT techniques, defining how inspections are performed and accepted, and making sure critical hardware gets the right volumetric inspection from development through production. You will work closely with Design, Manufacturing, and Quality Engineering and be involved early enough in a part's design to make it easier to inspect.
Responsibilities
- Develop, validate, and maintain CT inspection techniques for aerospace hardware. This includes scan parameters, reconstruction settings, and analysis workflows matched to each part's geometry, material, and inspection goals
- Demonstrate and document inspection capability, including image quality, resolution, detectability limits, and repeatability, using reference standards, image quality indicators, and representative defect specimens
- Write and maintain CT procedures, technique sheets, work instructions, and process specifications
- Lead CT inspection planning for critical hardware, including welds, additively manufactured parts, composites, pressure vessels and COPVs, and complex assemblies
- Review and interpret CT data, disposition findings against acceptance criteria, and clearly explain results and their impact on the hardware to Engineering, Manufacturing, and Quality
- Work with Design and Structures teams to set CT acceptance criteria and inspection requirements for fracture-critical and safety-critical hardware
- Support failure investigations, root-cause analysis, nonconformance and MRB dispositions, and process development involving internal features or volumetric defects
- Decide when CT is the right tool compared with other NDT methods or outside inspection services, based on technical fit, cost, and schedule
- Lead selection, installation, commissioning, calibration, maintenance, and upgrades of CT systems and analysis software
- Work with Environmental Health and Safety to make sure CT operations meet radiation safety and regulatory requirements
- Set standards for how CT data is stored, retained, and traced for flight hardware records
- Work with Design and Manufacturing Engineering to improve how easily parts can be inspected, how reliably defects are detected, and how repeatable inspections are
- Qualify, audit, and manage outside CT and specialty inspection suppliers when internal capability is unavailable or not sufficient
- Train, examine, and mentor NDT personnel in CT practices, data interpretation, and procedures, in line with the company's NDT written practice
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related technical field
- 5+ years of industrial NDT experience, including hands-on work developing, implementing, or maintaining industrial CT inspection methods
- Current ASNT NDT Level III certification in Radiographic Testing (RT)
- Demonstrated experience interpreting volumetric inspection data and evaluating internal features, discontinuities, and defects in aerospace or similar high-reliability hardware
- Working knowledge of how NDT programs run, including personnel qualification (NAS 410 / EN 4179), procedure development, and equipment qualification
- Ability to communicate technical findings clearly and defend inspection decisions to engineering and program leadership
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Advanced degree in a related technical field
- Demonstrated experience maintaining a CT inspection capability that supports an aerospace flight program
- Demonstrated experience with CT inspection of AWS D17.1 Class A welds, COPVs, and pressure vessels built to AIAA S-080/S-081 or similar standards, additively manufactured parts, castings, or composites
- Familiarity with space-industry NDE requirements, such as NASA-STD-5009 for fracture-critical hardware, and ASTM E1441, E1570, and E1695
- Demonstrated experience with high-energy CT, metrology CT (dimensional measurement), image-quality optimization, and artifact reduction
- Demonstrated experience designing probability of detection (POD) studies or other reliability demonstrations for NDE methods
- ASNT Level III certifications in other methods, such as UT, PT, or ET
- Demonstrated experience writing acceptance criteria and working with design teams on design-for-inspection requirements
- Scripting or automation experience (for example, Python) for CT analysis workflows
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space 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.
About
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related technical field
- 5+ years of industrial NDT experience, including hands-on development, implementation, or maintenance of industrial CT inspection methods
- Current ASNT NDT Level III certification in Radiographic Testing (RT)
- Experience interpreting volumetric inspection data and evaluating internal features, discontinuities, and defects in aerospace or similar high-reliability hardware
- Working knowledge of NDT programs, including NAS 410 / EN 4179 personnel qualification, procedure development, and equipment qualification
- Ability to communicate technical findings clearly and defend inspection decisions to engineering and program leadership
- Advanced degree in a related technical field
- Experience maintaining a CT inspection capability supporting an aerospace flight program
- Experience with CT inspection of AWS D17.1 Class A welds, COPVs, pressure vessels, additively manufactured parts, castings, or composites
- Familiarity with NASA-STD-5009, ASTM E1441, ASTM E1570, and ASTM E1695
- Experience with high-energy CT, metrology CT, image-quality optimization, and artifact reduction
- Experience designing probability of detection studies or other NDE reliability demonstrations
- ASNT Level III certification in additional methods such as UT, PT, or ET
- Experience writing acceptance criteria and supporting design-for-inspection requirements
- Scripting or automation experience, such as Python, for CT analysis workflows
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The Company
What We Do
Impulse enables low-cost and nimble last-mile space payload delivery - access any orbit, reach other worlds.
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