Supplier Quality Engineer, Materials

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.

SUPPLIER QUALITY ENGINEER, MATERIALS

As a materials supply chain reliability engineer, you manage and lead cross functional risk activities to meet technical, production, and regulatory requirements at the point of qualification and throughout the supplier's lifecycle. You would be responsible for monitoring for known and unknown supplier flight risk and driving failure investigations to resolve issues immediately and effectively. As supplier surveillance activities deal with suppliers that support all areas of SpaceX, you would build an extensive network within materials and processing, build reliability, production, supply chain management, and a deep understanding of SpaceX systems and processes. This experience would enable you to become a critical voice in the development of group and company strategy.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Act as the reliability point of contact for all purchased metallic raw materials and semi-finished products; mill products, castings, forgings, tubing, etc. used on our vehicles and engines, solving emergent challenges at suppliers and mitigating risk to the manifest by addressing high-impact manufacturing and quality challenges
• Interface with production operations, inspection, shipping/receiving, and engineering teams to develop appropriate quality signals and processes to meeting overall program reliability goals
• Drive changes that make the system more reliable, more manufacturable, and more efficient
• Lead cross functional supplier quality failure investigations in production, test and flight, identifying and mitigating the immediate and underlying root causes in order to quantify/reduce risk and improve reliability of designs and processes
• Coordinate failure resolution and follow-up actions to avoid further mishaps
• Responsible for containment actions associated with non-conforming product, including identification of product location, coordination with Build Reliability Engineers of potential flight risk and the coordination of actions required to identify root cause analysis
• 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
• Review acceptance and qualification of new capabilities at suppliers
• Monitor supplier capabilities for unknown flight risk and work to resolve issues
• Assess changes in supplier processes and cross-functional impacts
• Run ongoing reliability risk review activities, including performing data reviews and executing mitigation plans
• Work with cross-functional teams to drive improved verification and changes for improved reliability

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline
• 1+ years’ experience in a manufacturing or process engineering role (including school projects, clubs, or internships)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering or materials science & engineering
• Master’s degree in metallurgical engineering or materials science & engineering
• Broad familiarity with metallic mill products in the alloys and product forms used on our launch vehicle and engines
• Experience with tubing, castings and/or forgings
• Broad familiarity with the ancillary processes associated with the production of metallic parts, e.g., NDE, heat treatment, etc., is a plus
• Knowledge of 2D blueprints and model drawings
• Knowledge of supplier quality processes; production part approval process, advanced product quality planning, first article inspection reports, etc.
• Knowledge of statistical techniques and methods like design of experiments, Six Sigma etc.
• Experience with quality systems (ISO 9000/TS/AS9100/NADCAP)
• Disciplined approach to problem solving - 8D
• Experience with SQL, software development & project management, process flow mapping, material planning systems, warehouse management systems
• Knowledge of lean concepts
• Experience with sharing information and influencing others; strong written and verbal communication skills, able to liaise cross functionally, internally and externally, make presentations to team members and management
• Experience with MRP or ERP systems

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS: 

• Must be able to work extended hours, som