Manufacturing Engineer, PCBA; Starshield

Manufacturing Engineer, PCBA (Starshield)

Hawthorne, CA

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.

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.

The Starshield PCBA Engineer will work inside the production organization to develop, manage, and bring-up and improve the PCBA manufacturing process. This role looks to design production lines suitable to meet necessary rate, work with equipment suppliers to install and validate new equipment, and continuously seeks to improve the production process. We are actively looking for candidates who possess comprehensive knowledge of manufacturing and quality tools and have the motivation to work with supply chain to build a premium product at scale.

• Own and manage PCBA manufacturing processes and PCBA products for in-house production.
• Drive processes for volume production of PCBA including manufacturing execution, nonconforming product management, configuration management, traceability tracking, and process control.
• Manage new product introduction of PCBA assemblies, working closely with design engineers and process specialists.
• Use process capability analysis, gauge R&R, and other tools to lead new equipment selection.
• Design and implement systems to improve the safety of the PCBA production line.
• Manage work instructions, process documentation, and training.
• Track schedule, work-in-progress levels, and defect rates of owned products.
• Identify trends and opportunities for optimizing product output, quality enhancements, and cost of manufacturability.
• Provide feedback to the engineering design team to improve design for manufacturability.
• Identify, root-cause, and correct SMT production and testing issues.
• Drive corrective actions and process improvements on owned processes and products.

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
• 1+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: manufacturing engineering, surface mount technology (SMT), accelerated testing, hardware debug/triage, design for reliability, or printed circuit board (PCB) design and layout (school and project experience will qualify).

• High volume production experience (consumer goods, automotive, etc.).
• Hands-on experience working in SMT processing and/or related PCBA processes from industry, research, or academic projects.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work both autonomously and as a team in a highly demanding, fast-paced environment.
• Knowledge of IPC manufacturing standards.
• Experience with SQL and Python.
• Knowledge of statistical techniques and methods such as experiment design, process capability analysis, and gauge R&R.
• Experience with Six Sigma.
• Experience with basic failure analysis tools and methods (X-ray, cross-section, polishing).
• Demonstrated ability to gather, analyze, and use data to drive systemic improvements.

• Ability to life heavy objects, up to 25 lbs. unassisted.
• Willing to work weekend and extended hours as needed.
• Able to travel for business trips up to 10% on an ongoing basis.

• Level 1: $ - $
• Level 2: $ - $

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…