Hardware Reliability Engineer, Components (Starshield)

HARDWARE RELIABILITY ENGINEER, COMPONENTS (STARSHIELD)

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.

A Hardware Reliability Engineer plays a critical role in supporting the design engineering community to produce higher reliability Electrical, Electronic, and Electro-mechanical/Electro-optical (EEE) components and systems, ensuring SpaceX can continue to use commercial electronics from a wide range of manufacturers. This engineer will evaluate the quality and reliability of components for the design community, bringing together the appropriate groups to take corrective action with unforeseen component issues and failures. They will impact all stages of design and production, interfacing with design engineers, manufacturing engineers, as well as supply chain and production staff. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide support for team leadership and technical guidance for the Hardware and EEE Parts Reliability group
• Drive Avionics EEE piece part reliability issues and risk towards closure
• Use reliability physics of failure models and reliability statistics to assess risk levels to the mission, as well as to develop and implement accelerated tests to mitigate risks and qualify designs
• Lead reliability test planning, methodology, and execution
• Drive analysis processes for all failures discovered during reliability testing
• Build reliability prediction models and finite element models to evaluate product functional performance over mission life conditions
• Advise EEE designers on parts selection based on part reliability and manufacturing processes
• Interface with SpaceX groups such as supply chain, design engineering, and production/manufacturing
• Evaluate failure analysis and coordinate destructive physical analysis investigations to provide corrective actions and paths to closure
• Analyze and model implementation options to inform electronics design for reliability, including material selections, PCB laminates, features (vias, pad, stack up, etc.) specifications, finishes, component attachment, solder chemistry, reflow profile, and underfill selections
• Advise on HALT/HASS testing and reliability assessments for PCBA testing
• Execute testing campaigns to assess reliability of hardware and components

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, or another STEM discipline
• 2+ years of experience in hardware development, hardware troubleshooting, or data analysis (internship, co-op, and extracurricular experiences are applicable)
• 1+ years of experience with Python or SQL

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, or data science
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly cross-functional role
• Strong understanding of computers and programming languages (ideally Python, C, or C++)
• Strong understanding of time series data analysis and reliability statistics
• Strong understanding of failure mechanisms for electronic, mechanical, or optical systems
• Experience leading failure investigations and root cause analysis
• Experience performing environmental tests such as HALT/HASS campaigns, thermal cycling, vibration and shock testing, space environment effects testing
• Active Top Secret, Top Secret SCI, or DOE Level Q clearance, or the ability to obtain and maintain one

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Ability to work long hours and weekends as necessary to meet mission-critical deadlines
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