Build Reliability Engineer; Raptor

Overview

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 your area. You use data to understand the factors that drive reliability and inform projects that you execute to drive improvements in manufacturing, test, and flight. You dive deep into the details and coordinate with key stakeholders to identify, understand and solve difficult technical problems with corrective actions. You utilize a system level approach to prioritize issues based on the consequence and risk for Raptor and the Starship vehicle.

You thrive in a hands‑on environment and will spend time in the office, on the factory floor, and in the lab to execute on the mission to make humanity interplanetary.

• Responsible partner 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.
• Develop, implement and validate Lean test and inspection processes for new and existing products and process, ensuring that criteria are objective and that quality goals are consistently met.
• Monitor the success of products and processes through production ramp‑up using a suite of quality and analysis tools.
• Conduct regular build quality reviews to ensure that design intent is achieved and well‑communicated; identify 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 repeating non‑conformances.
• Investigate failures in production, test and flight, identifying and mitigating the immediate and underlying root causes in order to reduce risk and improve reliability of designs and processes.
• Contain suspect or known non‑conforming product, providing guidance to quality inspectors, technicians, shop supervisors and engineers to assist in quarantining and rework activities.
• Support the shop floor in continuous improvement and the advancing 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…