Design Criteria Engineer (Starship)

Starbase, TX Aerospace Full-time Posted Aug 12, 2026
Apply on SpaceX (opens in a new tab) Sourced via boards.greenhouse.io · Posted 2026-08-12

About this role

SpaceX is hiring a Design Criteria Engineer (Starship), full-time, on-site in Starbase, TX, in the Aerospace sector.

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.

DESIGN CRITERIA ENGINEER (STARSHIP)

The design criteria team is responsible for ensuring that hardware and operations lead to the mission's successful completion and meet or exceed requirements. This engineer will be industry-unique, stepping into an agile system engineering team, facilitating cross-disciplinary action and problem-solving across all SpaceX programs and engineering staff.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Drive improvements to vehicle design by being closely integrated with hardware teams.
  • Provide critical peer review and approval of hardware designs during design reviews; confirm acceptance and qualification test campaigns.
  • Drive the development of tools and methods to ensure accurate and well-disseminated design criteria.
  • Ensure a cohesive evolution of designs and operations across the different technical teams: avionics, propulsion, structures, launch, manufacturing, analysis, and test.
  • Work with a team to perform rapid conceptual design, analysis, and testing cycles on development hardware (may include CAD modeling and testing oversight as needed).

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
  • 1+ years of experience with mechanical design, manufacturing, and/or analysis (internship experience qualifies).

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

  • Experience with aerospace structure systems: design, analysis, testing, and fabrication for use in high-performance or safety critical applications.
  • Experience with fatigue, vibration, and thermal testing of mechanical assemblies.
  • Hands-on experience with various industry standard manufacturing tools, techniques and processes, including mills, lathes, electronics assembly, composite layup, etc.
  • Experience with material selection and make vs. buy decisions for system components.
  • Experience with solid modeling (Siemens NX) and finite element analysis software (FEMAP).
  • Experience performing closed-form and numerical stress analysis, simulations of dynamic systems, and fluid systems analysis.
  • Scripting and data analysis experience using Visual Basic, Matlab, Python, and Excel.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

  • Must be willing to work long hours and weekends as needed.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

  • 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 .

Description from SpaceX's official posting. Always confirm details on the company careers page.

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About SpaceX

SpaceX

Designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. Starlink and Starship. Hawthorne, CA.

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Larry Sherwood Jr.

About Larry Sherwood Jr.

Talent Acquisition Leader specializing in mobility, EV, and frontier tech. 1,000+ hires across roles ranging from production technicians to VPs, including 48 hires for the AFEELA U.S. launch at Sony Honda Mobility (98% offer acceptance, $1.5M+ agency savings). SHRM-CP certified. Build recruiting functions from scratch, no agencies.

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Curated by Larry Sherwood Jr. on the free Mobility Jobs board. Pulled nightly from company applicant tracking systems. Apply directly on the source link above to be considered.