Propulsion Engineer, Foundry (Raptor)

$110,000 - $130,000/Yr

SpaceX - Hawthorne, CA

Full-time - Entry Level

Hawthorne, CA

Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

About the position

As a Propulsion Engineer in the Raptor foundry at SpaceX, you will leverage your engineering expertise to develop and produce cutting-edge hardware for space technology. This role focuses on casting design, development, and production processes, contributing to the creation of engines that will enable human exploration beyond Earth and the Moon.

Responsibilities

• Own parts and processes in the Raptor foundry operation.
• Work closely with shop floor team on production process improvement projects to increase throughput, improve quality, and reduce cost.
• Lead routine process walks and root cause investigations to identify and quickly resolve production issues.
• Utilize design for manufacturability (DFM) principles and work closely with design engineers to reduce cost on new and existing investment cast parts.
• Apply first principles and utilize simulation software to develop and iterate gating designs for investment cast parts.
• Manage the development and process control of foundry equipment, including large-format 3D printers, robotic ceramic shelling systems, vacuum induction melting furnaces, and other heavy machinery.
• Develop and maintain systems to efficiently collect and analyze process data while minimizing collection/entry burden.
• Identify and implement safety improvements throughout the foundry.
• Develop and create standard procedures for novel processing techniques to minimize manufacturing steps and overall work content.
• Work within an extremely fast-paced environment and adapt to evolving design and production challenges.
• Demonstrate extreme ownership over foundry success: from initial development of new parts to full-rate production.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or other engineering discipline.
• 1+ years of professional or internship experience in a manufacturing environment/role.

Nice-to-haves

• Master's degree in materials, chemical, mechanical, aerospace, or manufacturing engineering.
• 2+ years of experience in the production of investment castings.
• Knowledge of metallic manufacturing techniques, processes, equipment and other processes such as: machining, welding, and brazing.
• Experience with the development of products from R&D into production.
• Process engineering experience including root cause analysis and corrective action management, capacity modeling, process mapping, and line layouts in a high-volume manufacturing environment.
• Strong engineering fundamentals in materials science and metallurgy.
• Non-Destructive Testing (NDT/NDE/NDI) experience.
• CAD experience (NX & Teamcenter is a plus).
• Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) experience.
• FEA software experience.
• Software development experience in SQL, Python or C#.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Short and long-term disability insurance.
• Life insurance.
• Paid parental leave.
• Various discounts and perks.
• 3 weeks of paid vacation.
• 10 or more paid holidays per year.
• 5 days of sick leave per year.
• Long-term incentives in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards.