Manufacturing Engineer

The journey to space starts with the engines. 

Are you passionate about building the coolest, highest-tech hardware anywhere on – and off – the planet? We’re scaling production more than 4x over last year and need your technical expertise and absolute love for seeing products go out the door to help us get there.

 

The purpose of this fun and rewarding role is to establish a deeply technical owner for every subsystem, system, and process necessary to build high-quality rocket engines efficiently & effectively for our customers. This position is critical to our company’s growth & success. Your input & guidance will be instrumental in the success of not only development and flight engine production, but also in cycle time improvements and DfM input to new, not-yet-public engines still in development.

 

Your primary focus will be owning several rocket engine subsystems – or an entire engine(!) – and drive the timely resolution and disposition of technical issues, from component defects to process gaps to test failures. You should be passionate about your engines and keeping our technicians unhindered in their build steps – always staying one or two steps ahead! The key to success in this role is not just the tactical issue resolution but understanding the patterns and developing long-term preventive actions to preclude recurrence and increase efficiency. A high sense of ownership for your engine or your subsystems is critical to success in this role.

 

As you improve your workflows, components, and engines, you’ll be able to add longer-term improvements to your focus, from process and workflow improvements on engines currently in production, to developing new manufacturing tooling, fixtures and test systems, to tight coupling with R&D to help design the newest engines to be more manufacturable and defect-free as we continue to “build the best damn engines”.

 

Daily Responsibilities 

• Become a technical expert on the subassemblies assigned to you, for both the design as well as manufacturing and assembly methods.
• Partner closely with responsible engineers (REs) and propulsion technicians to ensure production throughput excellence.
• Work with technicians and responsible engineers to author and maintain work instructions, manufacturing BOMs (mBOM), and manufacturing processes. Own your mBOM for your subassemblies.
• Transform work instructions from ‘minimum viable product’ to ‘flight-level’ quality.
• Improve build sequences for subassemblies, turbopump/engine assemblies, and ATPs.
• Be responsible and accountable for the physical configuration of all subassemblies and engines.
• Work with design, development, configuration, and test/dev to understand changes to the engineering BOM (eBOM) and effects on product quality as well as Supply Chain risk.
• Identify, track, communicate, and mitigate technical and assembly risks.
• Develop tools to support assembly, proofs, flows, and ATPs.
• Oversee daily Build Ops standup meetings for your subassemblies to provide status and manage roadblocks and risks.
• Assure product quality by managing, ensuring adherence to, and improving shop floor processes.
• Consult and work with our Advanced Manufacturing & Materials team to create or improve standard operating procedures such as cleaning and brazing.
• Create training programs for educating technicians and engineers.
• Scale the assembly process to support both development and flight engine throughput.

Growth Opportunities

• Once a proven track record is established with daily responsibilities, our goal for you is to go from owning subassemblies to owning an. Entire. Rocket. Engine!
• Collaborate even closer with REs on the floor to implement process improvements and design for manufacturability of new products with a focus on assembly.
• Implement preventative actions from recurrence.

Qualifications

• Passion for all things hardware!
• A true love for shipping product.
• 4+ years' manufacturing experience within hardware-focused organizations.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical/Aerospace) or relevant experience.
• Desire to partner with technicians and REs to build complex mechanical assembly work.
• In-depth experience within or beside quality assurance organizations.
• Experience with hands-on manufacturing and/or machining 
• Experience operating in ISO 9001 or AS9100 certified organizations.
• Experience following up, completing, and closing out a high volume of tasks.
• Experience in a very small or a startup business.

Colorado law requires us to tell you the base compensation for this role, which is a minimum of $90,000, with a capped salary determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities. What we can’t quantify for you are the exciting challenges, supportive team, and amazing culture we enjoy. Click here for more information about our awesome benefits.