Thermal Engineer (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 Thermal Engineer, you are responsible for the thermal design, test, and validation of vehicles and hardware. You will make engineering decisions to improve the vehicles and increase the overall hardware performance to help achieve our goals.

• →Thermal design of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and hardware, from initial high-level analysis down to validation of performance with ground tests, flight, and orbital data
• →Automate workflow to reduce engineering investment in the design cycle
• →Pursue performance/robustness improvements
• →Pursue operational simplicity and seek to reduce burden on other groups at SpaceX
• →Produce quality documentation of your work to reduce miss-rate and improve efficiency
• →Review peer work

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 1+ years of experience using scientific programming languages such as MATLAB, Python (internship or project team experience can supplement for industry experience)

• Master’s degree in an engineering discipline
• Experience with Thermal Desktop and ANSYS Workbench
• Experience with 3D and reduced-order thermal modeling
• Ability to identify sizing cases and quickly evaluate the impact of design decisions
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to deliver against an aggressive schedule
• 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

• Must be available to work extended hours and weekends as needed to meet mission critical deadlines
• Must be able to travel - up to 10-25% work week travel may be required
• This position is based in Hawthorne, CA and requires being onsite - remote work not considered

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.  

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to EEOCompliance@spacex.com.