Launch Reliability Engineer

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Reliably launch astronauts and other payloads by ensuring vehicle, payload, and spacecraft processing is efficiently designed and executed
• Interact with the various disciplines responsible for the development and build of Falcon 9, Dragon, Starship, etc., and launch pad systems to ensure optimized process health
• Identify high-risk processes and problems during vehicle processing or refurbishment, and proactively implement improvements to these processes to ensure operational excellence
• Find smart solutions to the biggest problems by leading root cause and corrective action investigations
• Determine high-risk processes and problems during vehicle processing or refurbishment, and proactively implement improvements to these processes to ensure operational excellence
• Maintain a feedback loop to drive hardware inputs that enable a reliable and rapid launch cadence; using data to make the quality landscape transparent and drive prioritization of resolving high-impact issues
• Participate in preliminary design review (PDR)/critical design review (CDR) and work with design reliability to ensure design for quality (DFQ), design for manufacturability (DFM), risk quantification/mitigation, and that appropriate test validation methods and inspection techniques, including nondestructive evaluation methods have been considered
• BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or physics
• 1+ years of professional or internship experience in a quality, manufacturing, or design engineering role
• PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline (e.g. aerospace, mechanical, etc.)
• Experience supporting production of complex electro-mechanical, mechanical or composites systems in high volume work centers and/or during production ramp-up
• Knowledge of quality tools such as Lean principles, Six Sigma, root cause analysis and corrective action, advanced product quality planning (APQP), metrology, process failure mode and effects analysis (PFMEA), control plans, and various problem solving approaches
• Dedicated to adopting a Lean approach to quality without compromising safety or reliability
• ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
• Ability to pass Air Force background check for Vandenberg Space Force Base