Sr. Tooling Design Engineer, Investment Casting

SENIOR TOOLING DESIGN ENGINEER, INVESTMENT CASTING 

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Tooling Design Engineer to own the design and development of wax injection molds and ceramic core injection molds used to produce turbine blades and vanes. This role is critical to scaling reliable, high-performance cast components. You will design complex tooling that must repeatedly deliver extremely tight tolerances and intricate internal cooling geometries while supporting aggressive rate and cost targets. 

As a member of the materials team, you will work closely with materials, casting, and manufacturing engineers to develop tooling solutions from concept through production qualification. Your designs will directly impact casting yield, dimensional stability, and the overall manufacturability of mission-critical hardware. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:  

• Design high-precision wax injection molds and ceramic core injection molds for complex turbine blades and vanes 
• Interpret and enable mold filling simulations and apply first-principles analysis to optimize gating, venting, cooling, and shrinkage compensation 
• Account for multi-stage shrinkage (wax, ceramic, and alloy) to consistently meet stringent dimensional and metallurgical requirements 
• Own tooling designs from concept through tryout, qualification, and production release 
• Collaborate closely casting engineers, materials scientists, and vendors to troubleshoot tooling-related casting defects and improve yield 
• Apply advanced GD&T and tolerance stack-up analysis to complex airfoil geometries 
• Support design for manufacturability (DFM) initiatives to enable high-rate production while maintaining quality and cost targets 
• Interface with internal manufacturing teams and external tooling vendors to ensure designs are successfully translated into reliable production too