Lead reliability for propulsion hardware across design, manufacturing, and flight. Investigate and eliminate build defects, develop inspections and acceptance criteria, perform development testing, provide design-for-reliability guidance, optimize MRP/ERP traceability, build quality metrics, train technicians, and drive corrective actions and supplier quality improvements.
As a Senior Build Reliability Engineer (Propulsion) at Impulse, you will own the connection between design requirements, manufacturing execution, and flight performance for the propulsion hardware. You will work hands-on with technicians, manufacturing engineers, and supporting teams to prevent defects before they occur, rapidly diagnose failures, and continuously improve hardware reliability across spacecraft builds.
Responsibilities
- Identify, investigate, and eliminate build defects and failures through root cause analysis and corrective actions both within and outside of your work centers
- Develop inspection requirements, acceptance criteria, and quality control processes aligned with hardware and mission reliability requirements. Assist in closeout inspections
- Perform development testing to guide design decisions and characterize hardware performance
- Provide design-for-reliability guidance during design reviews and build planning
- Optimize MRP/ERP system modules for improved hardware trace, data collection, and overall reliability
- Balance inspection and test with lean principles to ensure verifications are both comprehensive and streamlined
- Develop and implement build quality metrics to heighten awareness and to improve quality landscape over time
- Act as a specification custodian for inspection plans, storage and handling procedures, process control plans, and more
- Own training and certification of elevated sign-off privileges for manufacturing technicians
- Interface with supply chain to improve vendor hardware quality
- Ensure hardware integrity by holding the line on quality standards, extreme-owning hardware containments, and driving corrective actions to completion
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 5+ years of experience in hardware manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, or high-reliability systems
- Demonstrated experience supporting production builds, integration, or test of primary structures and/or complex mechanical or electromechanical systems
- Strong problem-solving skills with demonstrated root cause analysis experience
- Strong theoretical and working knowledge of GD&T
Preferred Skills and Experience
- 7+ years of demonstrated build reliability experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, aviation, robotics, or defense hardware
- Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, or similar quality systems (practical application preferred over documentation focus)
- Demonstrated experience with reliability engineering concepts (FMEA, reliability growth, Weibull analysis)
- Demonstrated background working closely with technicians and production teams
- Demonstrated experience supporting rapid development or prototype-to-production transitions
- Technical familiarity with propulsion assembly such as valves, cryogenics, high-pressure systems, injectors, feedlines, and fluid systems
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
About
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
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