Production Manager - Blades and Vanes Foundry
No salary listed
Senior
Bachelor's, Master's
Bastrop, TX, USA
In PersonTravel to other SpaceX sites and domestic and international vendors is approximately 10% normally, more during initial activation and commissioning.
Manufacturing & Production Operations
About the job
Requirements
- A bachelor's degree in an engineering or STEM discipline, or at least 5 years of professional leadership experience in a manufacturing environment.
- At least 5 years of production operations or process development experience.
- At least 3 years of experience in a leadership position.
- Must be willing to work long hours and weekends as needed.
- Must be able to stand for long periods, climb ladders, bend, grasp, sit, pull, push, stoop, and stretch as required.
- Must be willing to travel to other SpaceX sites and domestic and international vendors, approximately 10% normally and more during initial activation and commissioning, including temporary training and development assignments.
- Must be able to lift up to 25 pounds unassisted.
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Responsibilities
- Hire, lead, and mentor a team of supervisors, specialists, technicians, and machinists performing blades and vanes foundry operations, including core manufacturing, wax pattern, investment casting, leaching, heat treat, machining, coating, final tests, and inspections.
- Support factory activation, new product introductions, line expansions, and facility upgrades; contribute to strategic decisions about foundry design and bringing the facility online.
- Ensure a strong focus on safety and maintain an excellent safety record.
- Create and enforce training and career development paths to support timely product delivery, improve quality, and reduce lead time and cost.
- Define and enforce operational standards with strict accountability.
- Drive continuous improvement in manufacturing processes, procedures, quality, and rate.
- Collaborate with development, test, quality, and leadership to align long-term goals and resolve complex issues.
- Challenge requirements and legacy assumptions to establish a streamlined manufacturing environment.
- Ensure compliance with industry standards, including ISO, AS9100, and NADCAP, and SpaceX safety protocols, while fostering continuous improvement and operational excellence.
- Mentor and develop team members and conduct performance reviews.
- Own sustained capital expenditures, headcount, and capacity planning for foundry operations.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience in investment casting, industrial gas turbine blades and vanes, or similar high-temperature superalloy foundry operations.
- Experience leading new product introduction to volume production.
- Experience with equipment and ancillary support systems across a full foundry value stream, including core, wax, casting, leaching, heat treat, machining, coating, and nondestructive testing or inspection.
- Experience with equipment qualification, validation, and troubleshooting in a production foundry or controlled manufacturing environment.
- An advanced degree in engineering or a technical discipline.
- Experience building a multidisciplinary production organization.
- Experience leading multilevel production operations teams with 50 or more members.
- Experience presenting technical concepts to nontechnical stakeholders.
- Experience implementing or sustaining quality management systems such as ISO 9001 or AS9100.
About the company
SpaceX builds and launches reusable rockets and spacecraft for NASA, the military, and companies, and it runs Starlink, a satellite internet service for homes and businesses. In 2020, its Dragon capsule became the first privately built spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Its Falcon 9 rocket lands its first stage so the booster can fly again, which cuts launch costs, while Starlink beams internet from low-orbit satellites to small dishes for a monthly fee. SpaceX also owns xAI, maker of the Grok chatbot and owner of the social network X, and is building Starship, a fully reusable rocket meant to carry people to the Moon and Mars. Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, and it is based in Starbase, Texas.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Starbase, Texas
Founded
2002
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Starlink demand keeps compounding: subscribers doubled to 12 million in the year to June 2026.
- Room to grow: SpaceX listed 2,693 open roles in October 2026, over a third of them for Starlink.
- Rivals rent its AI supercomputers: Claude maker Anthropic agreed in May 2026 to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion a month.
What critics are saying
- Stock grants swing hard: shares closed between $108 and $211 in the four months after the June 2026 IPO.
- Expect long weeks: 1,724 of SpaceX's 2,693 job posts in October 2026 mention extended hours and weekend work.
- AI spending outruns sales: SpaceX put $15.8 billion into AI data centers in the June 2026 quarter, double its revenue.
What makes SpaceX unique
- SpaceX is the world's busiest launcher by far: its 165 orbital launches in 2025 were nearly double China's total.
- Starlink carries the profits: it earned $1.7 billion in the June 2026 quarter, while rockets and AI lost $1.8 billion.
- Elon Musk has the final say: super-voting shares give him about 82% of shareholder votes after the June 2026 IPO.
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Benefits
- Benefits and Perks - Our employees' well-being is important to us and essential to our capacity to do extraordinary things. We offer a wide variety of programs to support the health, wellness, and financial security of our employees and their families.