Sr. Flight Reliability Engineer (Falcon)

About the position

The Sr. Flight Reliability Engineer is responsible for understanding and mitigating risks for every mission we fly. This individual will be responsible for bringing the technical leadership required to make sure SpaceX flies vehicles safely and reliably as well as lead investigations, drive corrective actions (with the help of Build and Design Reliability) and ensure that the lessons learned are communicated to every applicable discipline.

Responsibilities

• Interact with the engineering, production, mission management teams from the planning stage all the way to launch for the purpose identifying and mitigating risk while supporting high launch cadence.
• Lead mission planning, timeline reviews coordinating inputs from teams, identifying and evaluating mission unique items.
• Monitor and assess test or production anomalies for flight risk and work with engineering to resolve issues leading up to launch.
• Run flight readiness activities including performing and organizing data reviews, mission workflow, readiness reviews before major launch vehicle operations and post flight data review and analysis after major launch vehicle operations.
• Assess changes to the vehicle configuration and design modifications for cross-system impacts.
• Identify and evaluate technical risk to launch operation; build flight rationale and mitigation plans to manage risks.
• Work towards the launch chief engineer role. Participate in launch operations- coordinate anomaly resolution when there is a need, and corrective actions to avoid further mishaps. This includes on console technical leadership, ability to think on your feet and coordinate and communicate.
• Perform independent technical review and verification of flight hardware and/or software system functionality and reliability.
• Maintain a system level knowledge of Falcon 9, Dragon and ground systems and work with design, build and operations teams to drive improved reliability.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or physics
• 5+ years of experience in a manufacturing, quality and/or design engineering role (student project team or internship experience qualifies).

Nice-to-haves

• Knowledge and mastery in various vehicle systems (hardware and analysis), including experience in developing hardware, multi-disciplinary analyses or hardware/software tests or launch operations is highly preferred.
• Knowledge of the disciplines necessary for spacecraft flight including: structures, propulsion, avionics, guidance, navigation and control, flight software, dynamics, launch and mission operations, systems engineering and integration. Practical experience in hardware development projects a plus.
• 1+ years of experience with launch vehicles, spacecraft or other aerospace systems.
• Capable of solving complex problems on schedule as an individual or as a member or leader of a team. Comfortable seeking out information to solve problems and organizing it in a manner that helps decision-making.
• Strong analytical skills coupled with an excellent ability to communicate with engineers in all disciplines and at every level.
• Demonstrated experience in leading or working on a multi-disciplinary engineering problem.
• Ability to quickly grasp knowledge of a diverse range of hardware and analyses that go into making SpaceX missions reliable and successful.
• Knowledge of programming languages such as MatLab, Python, SQL.

Benefits

• Pay range: $125,000.00 - $175,000.00/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.
• 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 pursuant to Company policy.