Build Engineer

BUILD ENGINEER, HITL (STARSHIELD)

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.

As a Build Engineer focused on hardware-in-the-loop testing, you will own the relationship between the engineering development, software development and production teams. You will develop familiarity with electrical, software and mechanical fundamentals and master bringing stakeholders from these disciplines together to create a system responsible for enabling testing and continuous deployment of software to on-orbit satellites. You should have strong technical and interpersonal skills and you enjoy thriving in a creative, scrappy, fast paced and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change company level direction on a regular basis.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead the assembly and integration of satellite and sub-assembly hardware-in-the-loop testbeds, test racks and related ground support equipment
• Develop novel manufacturing techniques and designs to improve the speed of development asset creation, and modification of production assets into testing assets later in the product lifecycle
• Prepare engineering documentation necessary for building, assembling and testing hardware-in-the-loop simulation assets and ground support equipment including assembly procedures, test procedures, standard operating procedures, schematic diagrams, bills of materials, suitable alternate parts lists and mechanical drawings
• Provide operational support for maintaining, troubleshooting and repairing existing development assets, as they are critical for testing flight software before it can be deployed
• Actively engage with technicians in a hands-on fashion to facilitate and improve production processes
• Devise and execute improvements to enhance production efficiency and quality
• Create, maintain, and communicate detailed plans and schedules
• Develop supply chain for new product and actively work with vendors
• Understand, analyze and resolve manufacturing discrepancies while interfacing with key stakeholders
• Tooling design and validation
• Design wiring harness assemblies and work with external vendors and internal technician teams to build harnesses for development and testing purposes
• Perform training of production personnel and leadership
• Lead continuous improvement efforts of established product
• Resolve non-conformances and work with external reliability stakeholders to identify root cause
• Develop and execute tests for subscale and vehicle level testing

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 2+ years of manufacturing, fabrication, assembly or testing experience (internship or project team experience can supplement for industry experience)

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master's degree in an engineering discipline
• Experience with spacecraft or aircraft avionics assemblies and testing
• Experience with process development, facility and line layouts
• Experience with NX and Teamcenter CAD and PDM systems
• Experience with test automation, particularly using Python, or familiarity with microcontroller programming, like Arduino
• Familiarity with wiring harness design, manufacturing and troubleshooting
• Familiarity with basic electrical debugging tools, including multimeters, oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers
• Ability to create and deliver presentations for design and test readiness reviews
• Experience working in fast-paced iterative design environments
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly cross-functional role
• Knowledge of a variety of manufacturing techniques, equipment, and processes
• Active Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance or willingness to pursue one is preferred. Note that an active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions. If so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol testing

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Travel to vendors and SpaceX launch/test sites as needed
• Intermittently able to work longer hours and weekends to support critical needs
• Note that an active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions. If so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol testing