Design Criteria Engineer

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.

DESIGN CRITERIA ENGINEER (FALCON & DRAGON)

The SpaceX engineering teams tackle space exploration’s most challenging problems by developing our reusable launch vehicles (Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy) and spacecraft (Crew & Cargo Dragon). These vehicles are responsible for delivering satellites into orbit, crew, and cargo to the ISS, and they will be instrumental in extending humanity’s reach to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

The design criteria & reliability team is responsible for ensuring that flight hardware and operations lead to the successful completion of missions while meeting or exceeding design requirements. We perform a unique engineering role, evaluating and guiding engineering designs from concept to flight. We facilitate cross-disciplinary action and problem-solving across all SpaceX programs and staff.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• 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

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 1+ years of professional experience in a hardware engineering role

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 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.)