Build Reliability Engineer; Raptor Additive​/Foundry

Build Reliability Engineer (Raptor Additive/Foundry)

Hawthorne, CA

Space

X 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 Space

X is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

Raptor is a full‑flow, staged combustion engine powering Starship – the most powerful launch vehicle in the world that's designed for heavy payload transport, multi‑planetary travel, and complete reusability. The Raptor program is actively developing the design and factory to achieve maximum performance and high‑rate production to support planned missions to the Moon and Mars. As part of the Build Reliability organization, you will join an inclusive, inter‑disciplinary team committed to reliability in manufacturing, test, and flight.

Your breadth of exposure and responsibility as a Build Reliability Engineer will be immense as you collaborate with other core groups at Space

X as the primary reliability contact for the additive and foundry work centers. You will be the extreme owner of reliability for additive and foundry builds driving improvements in manufacturing methods, inspection procedures, tooling design, work instructions, and design for manufacturability. The additive and foundry work centers turn raw materials into high‑complexity engine components which you will cover from initial design to flight.

• Partnering with design engineering and manufacturing teams through product development and production to create quality plans for flight hardware, including identification of key characteristics, prototype testing for functionality and manufacturability, first article and detailed inspection planning, and consideration of past failures and lessons learned.
• Investigating failures in production, test and flight, identifying and mitigating the immediate and underlying root causes to reduce risk and improve reliability of designs and processes.
• Developing, implementing and validating Lean test and inspection processes to validate new and existing products and processes, ensuring that criteria are objective and that quality goals are consistently met.
• Improving the reliability of hardware by any means necessary, including developing new manufacturing processes, adopting new technologies, defining inspection methods, creating test procedures, training production personnel, and creating work instructions.
• Conducting regular build quality reviews to ensure that design intent is achieved and well‑communicated; identifying opportunities for risk reduction and removal of complexity in designs and processes to improve manufacturability, collaborating with integrated product teams to drive improvements and address high‑impact and repeat non‑conformances.
• Containing suspect or known non‑conforming product, providing guidance to quality inspectors, technicians, shop supervisors and engineers to assist in quarantining and rework activities.
• Supporting the shop floor in continuous improvement and the advancement of a Lean, autonomous production system through creation of standard rework/repair guides, removal of redundant or unnecessary inspection, and improved control and optimization of critical processes.

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

• Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, enthusiasm for the team’s spirit of innovation and mission of improving reliability in cutting‑edge technology.
• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, materials engineering, or chemical engineering.
• Demonstrated application of process controls in high volume manufacturing, test, and quality environment.
• Knowledge of quality tools such as root cause analysis and corrective action, Lean principles, measurement systems analysis, design of experiments, statistical process control, advanced product quality planning (APQP), metrology, process failure mode…