Senior Materials Engineer, Vehicle Refurbishment

SpaceX • Cape Canaveral, FL

444d • $125,000 - $175,000

About The Position

The Senior Materials Engineer for Vehicle Refurbishment at SpaceX plays a crucial role in enhancing the reusability of SpaceX vehicles. This multidisciplinary position involves assessing and providing materials engineering solutions, particularly focusing on polymeric processes and corrosion assessment for metallic and composite structures. The engineer will collaborate with various teams to address complex material challenges and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in materials or chemical engineering
• 5+ years of experience with polymer physics, and vehicle integration

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in materials science or engineering
• Familiarity with silicone elastomers, polyurethane, silicone paints, structural adhesives, composites
• Willingness to travel
• Ability to communicate clearly and accurately with a wide range of people
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, autonomously driven, and demanding start-up atmosphere
• Ability to learn, lead others, and help others learn while maintaining productivity
• Familiarity with working in a safe lab environment
• Experience with FTIR spectrometer, DSC, scanning electron microscope, optical microscope, and other laboratory instruments
• Ability to train others in discipline job tasks and to confirm knowledge, skills and abilities of others as an evaluator for partnership skill qualification program dependent upon position level
• Proficient in or hands-on experience with one or more of the following: launch vehicle or spacecraft integration; composite structure design or testing; test operations with gases/fluids; data acquisition setup and field measurements
• Professional experience testing and operating with or around hazardous systems (high pressure, high energy, hazardous gases/fluids, etc.)

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with other engineers, subject matter experts, and technicians to solve complex material and processing challenges on current and next generation vehicles onsite.
• Maintain working knowledge of regulatory requirements, perform associated required tasks, and complete required documentation per SpaceX specifications and other external specifications such as NASA, OSHA, ASTM, NACE, ASME, etc.
• Investigate and analyze integrated vehicle parts, and flown polymeric and inorganic coatings on the exterior of the Falcon boosters and Merlin propulsion components.
• Apply corrosion knowledge and skills to assess, repair, install, troubleshoot, analyze, and perform other predictive and preventative maintenance tasks on assigned vehicle components.
• Investigate and analyze corrosive conditions for existing vehicle fleet.
• Perform basic characterization (SEM/EDS/FTIR) as first line of defense for material identification at the launch site.
• Support lab maintenance and growth into X2.

Benefits

• 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 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
• Potential discretionary bonuses
• Ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees