THERMAL ENGINEER, THERMAL & FLUID ANALYSIS (STARSHIP)

As a Thermal Engineer on the Starship Thermal & Fluids analysis team, you are responsible for the thermal design, test, and validation of vehicles and hardware. You will make engineering decisions to improve vehicle performance and reliability to help create a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own thermal design of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and hardware, from initial high-level analysis down to validation of performance with ground tests, flight, and orbital data.
• Automate workflow above to reduce engineering investment in per-mission analysis.
• Pursue performance/robustness improvements.
• Pursue operational simplicity and seek to reduce burden on other groups at SpaceX.
• Produce quality documentation of your work to reduce miss-rate and improve efficiency.
• Review peer work.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
• 1+ years of experience using engineering simulation software such as MATLAB (student project team and internship experience qualifies).

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree in an engineering discipline.
• 2+ years professional experience with thermal or fluid analysis.
• Strong understanding of spacecraft and/or launch vehicle systems.
• Experience with 0-D and 1-D thermal/fluid networks.
• Experience with Thermal Desktop and/or ANSYS Workbench.
• Working knowledge of scripting languages (specifically Python).
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to deliver against an aggressive schedule.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.

AERODYNAMICS ENGINEER (STARSHIP)

The Starship Aerodynamics team is responsible for predicting the aerodynamics and aerothermal environments booster and ship experience during all phases of their missions. Aerodynamics engineers use engineering models, simulations and wind-tunnel testing in order to provide the most accurate predictions ahead of flight validation. The team works closely with the GNC (guidance, navigation, and control) team to enable them to safely land and recover both Starship stages once their mission is accomplished. Moreover the team supports engineers responsible for vehicle structures during their design efforts. Aerodynamics engineers are expected to have a clear understanding of the flow fields experienced by our vehicles through the various flight regimes, from subsonic through hypersonic, and apply this understanding while they operate our prediction tools.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Prepare, mesh, run, and post process CFD models
• Review post-flight data and compare to pre-flight estimates
• Interface with responsible engineers, providing them inputs to their designs and ensuring they have a clear understanding of the physical phenomena they are dealing with
• Write code and scripts in a variety of languages, making sure they share common interfaces and can be part of a mostly automated workflow

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline

PREFERRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Master's degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering
• Experience with lower-order, engineering-level analysis tools
• Proficiency creating watertight 3D models and CFD grids, running CFD on Linux/Unix systems, and post-processing data with Tecplot or ParaView
• Experience with solvers used by NASA for entry vehicles, e.g. FUN3D, Loci/CHEM, DPLR
• Experimental testing experience
• Data processing and analysis in MATLAB or Python
• Strong background in external, compressible fluid dynamics
• Self-motivated, with strong organizational, communication and documentation skills

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed

SR. AERODYNAMICS ENGINEER (STARSHIP)

The Starship Aerodynamics team is responsible for predicting the aerodynamics and aerothermal environments booster and ship experience during all phases of their missions. Aerodynamics engineers use engineering models, simulations and wind-tunnel testing in order to provide the most accurate predictions ahead of flight validation. The team works closely with the GNC (guidance, navigation, and control) team in order to enable them to safely land and recover both Starship stages once their mission is accomplished. Moreover the team supports engineers responsible for vehicle structures during their design efforts. Aerodynamics engineers are expected to have a clear understanding of the flow fields experienced by our vehicles through the various flight regimes, from subsonic through hypersonic, and apply this understanding while they operate our prediction tools.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Prepare, mesh, run, and post process CFD models
• Review post-flight data and compare to pre-flight estimates
• Interface with responsible engineers, providing them inputs to their designs and ensuring they have a clear understanding of the physical phenomena they are dealing with
• Write code and scripts in a variety of languages, making sure they share common interfaces and can be part of a mostly automated workflow

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline
• 5+ years of experience with aerodynamic and aerothermal analysis

PREFERRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Master's degree or PhD in aerospace or mechanical engineering
• Experience with Siemens STAR-CCM+ and developing scripts in Java for it
• Experience with solvers used by NASA for entry vehicles, e.g. FUN3D, Loci/CHEM, DPLR
• Experimental testing experience
• Data processing and analysis in MATLAB or Python
• Experience with Siemens NX
• Experience with thermal protection systems
• Strong background in external, compressible fluid dynamics

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed

GNC ENGINEER (STARSHIP)

As a GNC Engineer, you will be responsible for pushing the technical boundaries of flight control systems for the world’s most advanced rockets, including our next-generation Starship vehicle, a fully reusable spacecraft capable of carrying humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond. You will work with a talented team of accomplished engineers to develop, analyze, and test vehicles and subsystems for highly reliable flight. You should thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments where you adapt quickly and love to solve hard problems.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop innovative guidance, navigation, and control systems for Starship
• Engage in multi-disciplinary vehicle systems investigations and design work that define the systems architecture
• Implement new software or algorithms to enable mission unique capabilities and leading edge launch vehicle performance
• Develop 6-DOF dynamics simulation models used for GNC systems analysis and validation
• Analyze launch vehicle trajectories, performance dispersions, and flight stability
• Conduct post flight data review and correlation with analyses for continued improvement of predictions
• Support launch and mission operations of vehicles that you enabled
• Perform testing of GNC software utilizing hardware-in-the-loop testing, Monte Carlo analysis, and algorithm unit testing

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in physics or an engineering discipline
• Experience with control systems, orbital mechanics, classical dynamics, modeling, and simulation
• Experience with the software languages Python or C++

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Postgraduate degree in physics or an engineering discipline
• 2+ years of professional experience in control systems, orbital mechanics, classical dynamics, aerodynamics, sensors and actuators, modeling and simulation, and the software languages C++ and Python
• Demonstrated project or professional experience in launch vehicle and/or spacecraft system
• Capable of solving complex problems with little to no supervision on schedule as an individual or as a member of an integrated team
• Passion for advancing the commercial space industry and human spaceflight
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal

PROPULSION ENGINEER, THERMAL & FLUID ANALYSIS (STARSHIP)

As a Propulsion Engineer on the Starship Thermal & Fluids analysis team, you will ensure that fluid consumables are in the right place and at the right conditions for the Starship program. You will make engineering decisions to improve vehicle performance and reliability to help create a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Per-mission analysis on attitude control systems, propellant conditions, tank pressurization systems to maximize performance while staying robust.
• Automate the workflow above to reduce engineering investment in per-mission analysis.
• Pursue performance/robustness improvements.
• Pursue operational simplicity and seek to reduce burden on other groups at SpaceX.
• Produce quality documentation of your work to reduce miss-rate and improve efficiency.
• Review peer work.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
• 1+ years of experience using engineering simulation software such as MATLAB (student project team and internship experience qualifies).

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree in an engineering discipline.
• 2+ years of professional experience with thermal or fluid analysis.
• Strong understanding of spacecraft and/or launch vehicle propulsion systems and fluid components.
• Experience with 0-D and 1-D thermal/fluid networks.
• Working knowledge of scripting languages (specifically Python).
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to deliver against an aggressive schedule.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.

SR. THERMAL ENGINEER, THERMAL & FLUID ANALYSIS (STARSHIP)

As a Senior Thermal Engineer on the Starship Thermal & Fluids analysis team, you are responsible for the thermal design, test, and validation of vehicles and hardware. You will make engineering decisions to improve vehicle performance and reliability to help create a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own thermal design of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and hardware, from initial high-level analysis down to validation of performance with ground tests, flight, and orbital data.
• Automate workflow above to reduce engineering investment in per-mission analysis.
• Pursue performance/robustness improvements.
• Pursue operational simplicity and seek to reduce burden on other groups at SpaceX.
• Produce quality documentation of your work to reduce miss-rate and improve efficiency.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of professional experience using engineering simulation software such as MATLAB. 

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree in an engineering discipline.
• 5+ years professional experience with thermal or fluid analysis.
• Strong understanding of spacecraft and/or launch vehicle systems.
• Experience with 0-D and 1-D thermal/fluid networks.
• Experience with Thermal Desktop and/or ANSYS Workbench.
• Working knowledge of scripting languages (specifically Python).
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to deliver against an aggressive schedule.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay range:    
Thermal Engineer/Senior: $130,000 - $180,000/per year 

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

SOFTWARE ENGINEER (THERMAL & FLUID ANALYSIS)

The Thermal & Fluid Analysis team supports the design and testing of Starship’s thermal and fluids systems. These include active and passive thermal control, propellant feed systems, gas systems, thermal protection, and in-space propellant management among many other subsystems. These systems must perform reliably in extreme environments from launch to recovery. In this role, you will develop software tools to support analysis, improve design processes, automate workflows, and subsequently deploy the new software/workflows to the analysis and engineering community. Your work will enable making informed decisions more quickly and thus reducing the time required to realize a self-sustaining colony on Mars.

This role requires strong software development skills and an interest in simulation, thermal design, and fluid systems. Experience with thermal & fluid system modeling technique and simulation is a major plus.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Design software and workflows that improve mission critical analysis throughput
• Build infrastructure to support thermal and fluid systems analysis
• Automate analysis workflows to speed up mission and design iteration
• Support simulation and validation with test and flight data
• Collaborate with engineers to improve reliability and performance of spacecraft systems
• Write clean, scalable code and maintain strong documentation

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, physics, mathematics, or a related field
• 1+ years of experience coding in Python, JavaScript, and/or Rust (including internship or academic experience)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
• Familiarity with thermal or fluid systems in spacecraft or aerospace applications
• Strong background in Python and data processing
• Experience automating engineering workflows or simulations
• Knowledge of and/or experience in MATLAB, C/C++, Git, Thermal Desktop, ANSYS Workbench, Siemens STAR-CCM+
• Understanding of thermal/fluid networks (0-D or 1-D modeling)
• Excellent communication and documentation skills
• Interest in making engineering tools easier to use and more scalable
• Familiarity with high performance computing

LOADS & DYNAMICS ENGINEER (STARSHIP)

The Starship Dynamics team is responsible for all dynamic and vibration analyses on the Starship, Super Heavy and HLS vehicles and works closely with Starship Responsible Engineers to drive hardware and mission design decisions. To that end, the team is responsible for a wide range of dynamics engineering disciplines, broken down into several sub-teams, all of which are accepting applications.

The Multibody Dynamics team solves rigid body dynamics problems such as mechanism and kinematics, vehicle landing/catch and payload deployment. The Loads team is responsible for the structural loads and dynamics of the primary structure and payloads. This includes Coupled Loads Analysis (CLA), modal analysis and testing, integrated analysis and tool development, and flight/test operations support. The Environments team is the experts in vibration and aeroacoustics. This includes vibration and shock level derivations and testing, predicting and measuring vibroacoustic loads due to aeroacoustic environments (acoustics, buffet, over pressure, unsteady flow) as well as engine dynamics. The Fluid Transients team predicts unsteady and modal fluid dynamics for understanding of waterhammer, pogo and cavitation dynamics.

Dynamics engineers are expected to have a strong intuition of dynamic systems and a good understanding of a broad range of engineering disciplines, in addition to having solid software and analytical skills. You do not need to meet 100% of the preferred qualifications to be considered. We encourage anyone who meets the basic qualifications and is interested in the role to apply. We are looking for curious, enthusiastic and dedicated people to join our team, and we want the opportunity to talk to you!

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Resolve dynamics problems through analysis, test and the use of flight data
• Own system level analysis and drive hardware modifications or vehicle operations across vehicle engineering teams
• Build finite element and lumped element models of launch vehicle systems for derivation of vehicle or component loads
• Execute dynamic testing from start-to-finish (pre-test analysis, sensor selection & installation, testing, data analysis, signal processing and model correlation)
• Perform component and vehicle-level analyses using commercial and in-house codes as well as develop and write new code

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering or related discipline
• 1+ years of experience with structural dynamic analyses or system dynamics modeling (can be in a professional, academic, entrepreneurial, or hobby setting)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Hands-on experience either analyzing data or building hardware
• Experience with vibration and shock testing
• Experience with finite element modeling
• Experience with NASTRAN (knowledge of DMAP programming a plus)
• Experience with fluid system modeling and structural-fluid coupling pogo problems
• Experience with data processing, analysis and tool development in Python and MATLAB
• Working knowledge of structural analysis and test, including a fundamental understanding of strength, stability and fatigue failure mechanisms

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Position may require extended work hours and weekend work

SR. GNC ENGINEER (STARSHIP)

As a GNC Engineer, you will be responsible for pushing the technical boundaries of flight control systems for the world’s most advanced rockets, including our next-generation Starship vehicle, a fully reusable spacecraft capable of carrying humans to Mars and beyond. You will work with a talented team of accomplished engineers to develop, analyze, and test vehicles and subsystems for highly reliable flight. You should thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments where you adapt quickly and love to solve hard problems.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop innovative guidance, navigation, and control systems for Starship
• Engage in multi-disciplinary vehicle systems investigations and design work that define the systems architecture
• Implement new software or algorithms to enable mission-unique capabilities and leading-edge launch vehicle performance
• Develop 6-DOF dynamics simulation models used for GNC systems analysis and validation
• Analyze launch vehicle trajectories, performance dispersions, and flight stability
• Conduct post-flight data review and correlation with analyses for continued improvement of predictions
• Support launch and mission operations of vehicles that you enabled
• Perform testing of GNC software utilizing hardware-in-the-loop testing, Monte Carlo analysis, and algorithm unit testing

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in physics or an engineering discipline
• 5+ years of professional experience
• Experience with control systems, orbital mechanics, classical dynamics, modeling, and simulation
• Experience with the software languages Python or C++

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Postgraduate degree in physics or an engineering discipline
• Experience in aerodynamics, sensors and actuators
• Demonstrated project or professional experience in launch vehicle and/or spacecraft system
• Capable of solving complex problems with little to no supervision on schedule as an individual or as a member of an integrated team
• Passion for advancing the commercial space industry and human spaceflight
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed