Supplier Development Engineer, Hardware & Fasteners; Starship

Supplier Development Engineer, Mechanical Hardware & Fasteners (Starship)

Hawthorne, CA

SpaceX is building a supply chain that can scale from prototype to high-cadence flight hardware without sacrificing reliability. We need an engineer who will be the extreme owner of fasteners and hardware — and who will push suppliers, processes, and designs until quality, cost, and rate all win.

This is a hands-on, highly technical role. You will spend time on shop floors, at heat treat and coating lines, in metrology labs, and in design reviews — not just in meetings. The ideal candidate has manufacturing depth, a genuine interest in mechanical fasteners, and the urgency to solve hard problems that protect the flight manifest.

Responsibilities:

• Own the mechanical hardware commodity for Starship:
  Fasteners (bolts, nuts, screws), Dynamic Hardware (springs, bearings, rod ends) and Fluid Control (fluid fittings, filters), and related joining devices — from supplier selection through rate production.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for assigned parts and suppliers; resolve emergent manufacturing, quality, and capacity issues that threaten the build or flight schedule.
• Lead new product introduction (NPI) and work transfers for fastener and hardware products: qualify suppliers, validate processes, and ramp production to aggressive takt times.
• Drive production part approval and process validation (PPAP, FAIR, capability studies) so every critical characteristic is controlled and proven before hardware reaches the vehicle.
• Lead containment on nonconforming hardware; define scope with engineering, quality, and production; execute disposition (rework, repair, use-as-is, or scrap); and prevent recurrence.
• Root-cause defects at the supplier, at SpaceX, or both — including heat treat, plating/coating, thread forming/rolling, machining, forging, material certs, and dimensional/GD&T escapes.
• Partner with design and manufacturing engineering to improve part designs, specifications, and process callouts for manufacturability, lead time, cost, and defect reduction.
• Assess supplier capability and capacity (equipment, tooling, personnel, quality systems) and develop underperforming suppliers or dual-source/re-source when required.
• Work with procurement to identify, vet, and grow exceptional fastener and specialty hardware suppliers who can meet aerospace quality and SpaceX rate.
• Become the go-to expert on your parts and processes; own supply-chain-related defects and drive them to zero escapes.
• Serve as SpaceX's SAE representative; attend technical committee meetings and advocate for company positions on fastener, hardware, and related standards.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 2+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, or supplier development

Preferred

Skills and Experience:

• Hands-on familiarity with mechanical fasteners and joining hardware (bolts, nuts, screws, studs, washers, pins, springs, fittings, inserts, etc.)
• Experience with fastener or precision hardware manufacturing processes: cold heading/forging, thread rolling or cutting, machining, heat treatment, surface finishing, plating/coating, passivation, and secondary ops
• Familiarity with destructive and nondestructive inspection methods relevant to fasteners and hardware (e.g., hardness, tensile, fatigue, magnetic particle, fluorescent penetrant, dimensional metrology)
• Working knowledge of aerospace and industry fastener/material standards (e.g., NAS, AN, MS, ASTM, AMS, NASA/JSC, ISO)
• Experience assessing supplier technical capability and capacity (equipment, process control, operations, and people)
• Knowledge of supplier quality frameworks: PPAP, APQP, FAIR, control plans, PFMEA, MSA
• Experience with quality systems (AS9100, ISO 9001) and high-reliability or high-volume production environments
• Proven ability to drive root cause and corrective action using structured methods (8D, 5-Why, fishbone, Pareto) and statistical tools (capability, DOE, SPC; Minitab or equivalent a plus)
• Comfort reading engineering drawings, including GD&T, material callouts, and special process requirements
• Experience with CAD and…