Design Criteria Engineer (Falcon & Dragon)

The role

This person will ensure SpaceX design processes and criteria are followed for flight, launch, and recovery systems. They will evaluate and guide engineering designs from concept to flight for reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft.

What you will do

• Ensure that the SpaceX design process and design criteria/requirements are being followed for flight, launch, and recovery systems
• Provide critical peer review and approval of hardware designs during design reviews, and of acceptance and qualification test campaigns
• Develop design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new systems
• Setup new processes to enable reliable aircraft-like operations of launch vehicles and spacecraft
• Drive improvements to vehicle design by being closely integrated with hardware teams
• Review vehicle changes to ensure all hardware and operations are qualified
• Develop specialized design and analysis tools for other engineering groups

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 1+ years of professional experience in a hardware engineering role
• Must be available to work long hours and weekends as necessary

Nice to have

• Master's degree in an engineering discipline
• Hardware experience performing fabrication, assembly, and/or testing - can be in a professional, academic, or recreational setting
• Experience with aircraft, launch vehicles, spacecraft, or other aerospace systems
• Experience with at least one commercial FEA package (NASTRAN, ABAQUS, or ANSYS)
• Hardware ownership on an award-winning engineering project or competition team (FSAE, Design-Build-Fly, NASA Student Launch, etc.)
• Experience with electromechanical system design, analysis, testing, and fabrication for use in high-performance or safety critical applications
• Hands on experience with various industry standard manufacturing tools, techniques and processes, including mills, lathes, electronics assembly, composite layup, etc.
• Experience with material selection and make vs. buy decisions for system components
• Scripting and data analysis experience using Visual Basic, Matlab, Python and Excel

Benefits

• Company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards
• Ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan
• Short and long-term disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Various other discounts and perks
• 3 weeks of paid vacation
• 10 or more paid holidays per year
• Paid sick leave

Before you apply

• 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 eligibl

About the company

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.