Manufacturing Engineer, Inspection (Starship Machining)
Hawthorne · 1+ years experience · Posted Sep 22, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 1+ years experience
- Location
- Hawthorne
About the role
- The Manufacturing Engineer, Inspection (Starship Machining) will own the relationship between engineering, production, and quality teams to ensure inspection reliability and efficiency.
- This role focuses on driving design for manufacturability improvements and optimizing inspection processes for hardware used in current and next-generation vehicles, including Starship.
Responsibilities
- Determine inspection plans for machined components to ensure quality while optimizing cycle time and repeatability.
- Drive improvements to existing inspection processes, including reducing CMM inspection times.
- Increase inspection throughput and improve non-conformance management.
- Maintain feedback loops with design and manufacturing teams to improve design for manufacturability and inspectability.
- Investigate and implement novel inspection equipment and technologies.
- Collaborate with other SpaceX machine shops and quality facilities to share capabilities and address process alignment.
- Contain non-conforming products and implement corrective actions after root cause investigations.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or physics.
- 1+ years of machine shop, manufacturing, quality, and/or inspection experience.
- Ability to work extended hours, weekends, and offsite as needed.
- Ability to lift/carry up to 25lbs (unassisted) for 1-2 hours per day.
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee to conform to U.S. Government export regulations.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with precision conventional and advanced metrology systems (CMMs, laser scanning, 3D imaging, photogrammetry).
- Well-versed in GD&T.
- Well-versed in standard machine shop manufacturing processes and set ups.
- Experience setting up and operating state-of-the art inspection equipment.
- Experience operating CNCs, conventional lathe and mill machines.
- Experience with CMM programming.
Benefits
- Company stock or long-term cash awards
- Discretionary bonuses
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Medical, vision, and dental coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan
- Short and long-term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- 3 weeks of paid vacation
- 10 or more paid holidays per year
Skills
- CMM
- GD&T
- Lathe
- Mill
- Laser Scanning
- 3D Imaging
- Photogrammetry
