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Principal Mechanical Engineer (Starship)

SpaceX· Ship Engineering
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Starbase, TXfull-timePosted 5mo ago

About the role

Lead mechanical engineer for Starship hardware, owning end-to-end design, analysis, and build of flight structures and subassemblies with hands-on manufacturing and integration responsibilities.

Responsibilities

  • Develop design concepts from a clean sheet and size vehicle structures based on flight loads
  • Collaborate with peers from different vehicle systems to develop designs that balance mass, cost, and capability
  • Create detailed designs to implement structural concepts and generate CAD models in NX for components, assemblies, and vehicle integration
  • Build finite element models to assess your designs in detail and analyze your structures to prove they meet the needs of the vehicle
  • Apply first-order hand calculations and empirical formulas to assess and iterate on your designs rapidly
  • Validate your designs by building development articles to test individual joints and design elements for strength
  • Perform structural testing on subassemblies and full sections of the airframe
  • Partner with build engineers and technicians to improve your designs
  • Support the assembly of your hardware in the factory, witness your designs being brought to life daily, and watch them take flight and make history

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
  • 7+ years of experience with mechanical design and analysis

Skills

Required:Mechanical design and analysis
Nice to have:Finite Element Analysis (FEA)Qualification testingMaterial selection and manufacturing methodsProgramming / scriptingCommunication and collaboration

Benefits

  • (not explicitly listed in the description)
Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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