SpaceX
Supplier Development Engineer, Hardware & Fasteners (Starship)
About this role
SpaceX seeks a Supplier Development Engineer to own the mechanical fasteners and hardware supply chain for Starship, ensuring thousands of critical components meet extreme aerospace performance standards. This hands-on role combines supplier management, manufacturing process validation, and quality control to scale production while maintaining reliability and cost efficiency.
What you'll do
- Own fastener and hardware commodity end-to-end: supplier selection, NPI, process validation, and rate production for Starship
- Serve as primary technical contact for assigned parts and suppliers; resolve manufacturing, quality, and capacity issues threatening schedule
- Lead PPAP, FAIR, and capability studies to validate critical characteristics before hardware reaches the vehicle
- Root-cause and contain nonconforming hardware defects across heat treat, plating, machining, forging, and dimensional escapes
- Partner with design and manufacturing to improve part designs, specifications, and processes for manufacturability and cost
- Assess and develop supplier capability; identify, vet, and grow exceptional fastener suppliers meeting aerospace quality and rate requirements
What they're looking for
- Mechanical fastener and joining hardware knowledge (bolts, nuts, screws, springs, fittings)
- Fastener manufacturing processes (cold heading, thread rolling, machining, heat treatment, plating, coating)
- Destructive and nondestructive testing methods (hardness, tensile, fatigue, magnetic particle, penetrant, metrology)
- Aerospace fastener standards (NAS, AN, MS, ASTM, AMS, NASA/JSC, ISO)
- PPAP, FAIR, and process capability study execution
- Root-cause analysis and defect containment
- Supplier quality management and development
- GD&T and dimensional inspection
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SpaceX
SpaceX develops advanced spacecraft and satellite systems, including the Starshield government satellite constellation and Starfall re-entry cargo capsule for global delivery. The company is hiring engineers in avionics integration, software test automation, mechanical design, and hardware reliability to validate flight-critical systems and ensure mission success.
- Website
- spacex.com
Likely interview questions
- Walk us through a time you identified a fastener manufacturing defect and led the root-cause investigation—what was the issue and how did you prevent recurrence?
- Describe your experience with PPAP and process capability studies—what critical characteristics have you validated and how did you ensure supplier readiness?