Manufacturing Engineer II

About the Team: 

The Stage Manufacturing team turns design into reality, owning the build of Terran R’s primary structures. This isn’t about turning the same bolt every day; it’s about building the systems to build the rocket. Engineers and technicians work side by side, with deep collaboration and real-time feedback, to shape how we build better and faster. With a manifest and a launch date, it’s up to the team to deliver on Terran R: solving challenges in real time, optimizing for scale, and constantly improving processes. As the vehicle evolves, so will the factory, with opportunities to apply automation, machine learning, and advanced technologies. What we build here sets the blueprint for the future of scaled launch.

About the Role:

The Mechanisms Manufacturing team is responsible for working alongside the vehicle design and test teams to develop hardware that enables Terran R reusability, such as landing legs, pneumatic separation and release mechanisms, and linear and rotary electromechanical actuators.  In this role, you will advocate for scalable manufacturing in product design trades and reviews, ensuring that manufacturing considerations are integrated early in the design process. You will develop build flow planning, large-scale part logistics, tooling design, conceptualizing & sourcing, analyze build & test data, work center capacity modelling and complex assembly work planning and execution. To be successful in this role, you need to be a self-starter that can thrive in ambiguity, identify problems and quickly resolve them, and provide definition to the previously undefined. You should have a commitment to quality and the discipline required to achieve it.

• Responsible for a major mechanized subassembly and its child components from design release through test and successful integration onto the Terran R launch vehicle—lay out the build and test flow to ensure an efficient, high-quality product flow capable of scaling with time. 
• Drive the assembly’s build and test effort through design integration, part sourcing, assembly sequencing, mBOM development, build and test work order creation, and specification authoring. 
• Support work center development by considering assembly and test operations, safety, tooling and capital equipment requirements, and company operational goals.
• Provide hands-on support to the shop floor and production personnel, promptly addressing any issues that arise and offering upstream feedback to drive design for manufacturability.
• Foster strong collaborative relationships with design, production, supply chain and quality assurance, facilitating effective communication and coordination to ensure alignment with company objectives and successful execution of manufacturing processes.
• Foster a culture of critical thinking and imaginative problem-solving, constantly challenging the established norms in engineering and manufacturing, and pushing the boundaries to achieve efficient production. 

About You:

• BS degree in aerospace, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering (or technical equivalent) with 3+ years of experience building and testing hardware in a manufacturing environment
• Extensive experience authoring work instructions and/or test procedures to build and validate interdisciplinary mechanical and electrical assemblies
• Experience partnering with design engineering, manufacturing, and production personnel
• Extensive experience managing and implementing large process and/or quality improvements with large scope of ownership
• Experience developing or participating in developing tooling as a manufacturing representative
• Experience with at least 2 of the following:
  • Machining, precision drilling, mechanical fastening, and torqueing operations, electromechanical assembly, electrical or pneumatic functional checkouts, integrated testing, tool design and fab, subassembly work center development

Nice to haves but not required:

• Self-starter that has demonstrated the ability to define and own a process from scratch and roll out that process through adept communication to a diverse team
• New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success
• Working knowledge of rocket subsystems including structures, mechanisms, high pressure gas systems, and/or avionics
• Strong understanding GD&T and drafting principles