Sr. Hardware Reliability Engineer (Avionics)

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

SR. HARDWARE RELIABILITY ENGINEER (AVIONICS)

The Build Reliability team at SpaceX is an interdisciplinary team committed to the reliability of avionics hardware. The breadth of exposure will span across dozens of areas (sensors, RF, power electronics, vision systems, computation nodes, networking, batteries, harnessing, solar, etc.) as you collaborate with other core groups at SpaceX, supporting the hardware from design to production and operation. You use data to understand the factors that drive reliability and support quality objectives in design and development teams to drive improvements in reliability in manufacturing, testing, and flight. You can dive deep into the details to identify, understand, and solve difficult technical problems and also utilize a system-level approach to prioritize issues for the vehicle as a whole. You thrive in a hands-on environment and will spend time in the office, on the factory floor, and in the lab to execute on the mission to make humanity interplanetary.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responsible partner with core electrical design engineering and avionics manufacturing teams through product development and production to improve product reliability by applying best practices to designs and establishing repeatable process control
• Support new product development by prototyping early development hardware to learn the design limitations through a HASS style development
• Identify opportunities for risk reduction and removal of complexity in designs and processes to improve manufacturability, collaborating with integrated product teams to drive improvements and address high-impact and repeating non-conformances
• Utilize schematics, test equipment, and inspection processes to conduct PCBA test failure investigations, performing structured root cause analysis to identify design, manufacturing, and process changes to prevent future product failures
• Lead initiatives for risk reduction and removal of complexity in designs and processes to improve manufacturability, collaborating with integrated product teams to drive improvements and address high-impact and repeating non-conformances
• Monitor the yield rate of products and drive corrective action to products not meeting design specifications
• Contain suspect or known non-conforming product, providing guidance to quality inspectors, technicians, shop supervisors and engineers to assist in quarantining and rework activities
• Support the shop floor in continuous improvement and the advancing of a Lean, autonomous production system through creation of standard rework/repair guides, removal of redundant or unnecessary inspection, and improved control and optimization of critical processes
• Serve as technical expert in avionics processes to challenge requirements to determine what adds value and what is non-value added overhead
• Work with core avionics to determine the minimum viable sequence of acceptance testing that needs to be performed on flight hardware to guarantee high reliability at the system level
• Provide mentorship and guidance to junior engineers on the team

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline
• 5+ years in a PCBA manufacturing and/or avionics design role with a focus on hands on hardware support/test/root cause
• 3+ years of experience with electrical test equipment (e.g., multimeters, signal generators, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers) to verify hardware functionality

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering
• 8+ years of industry experience working with electronic hardware
• Electrical schematic and PCB design (eCAD) software (e.g., Altium, Orcad)
• Common circuit blocks including filters, power supplies, and microcontrollers
• Circuit simulation software (e.g., SPICE, LTSPICE)
• Ability to troubleshoot PCBA level failures and provide corrective action
• PCBA Fabrication experience (familiar with solder, flux, underfill, staking, reflow, temperature control, etc.)
• Demonstrated application of process controls in high volume manufacturing, test, and quality environment
• Experience with RF test equipment (vector network analyzers and spectrum analyzers)
• Experience with RF concepts such as S-parameters, impedance matching, and antenna designs
• Experience developing or supporting any of the following products/processes:
  • Avionics integration and