---
title: 'Launch Engineer, Fluid Systems (Starship) at SpaceX'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/launch-engineer-fluid-systems-starship-spacex-starbase-yezwvtr0whbr'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Launch Engineer, Fluid Systems (Starship) at SpaceX

- **Company:** SpaceX
- **Location:** Starbase, TX
- **Posted:** 2026-04-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/8504994002?gh_jid=8504994002

## Job description

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.

## LAUNCH ENGINEER, FLUID SYSTEMS (STARSHIP)

Aggressively-paced, constantly-evolving, results-focused, real-as-it-gets engineering positions available for the ambitious. We design, build, activate, modify, improve, and maintain the fluid systems that fuel the most powerful rocket in the world. Aimed at pivoting and fixing issues every day, you can plan on having your skills put to the test, having hardware you designed, made, and installed the same day in a development-focused environment. From tens of thousands of gallons per minute of cryogens to tens of pounds per second of high-pressure gas, we develop clever solutions to meet the needs of a demanding launch and test program both today and in the future.

## RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Analyze, design, and build systems that support critical rocket launches and testing
- Cradle-to-grave project ownership through hosting design reviews, project decision justification, equipment procurement, and coordination and assistance of the construction of your ideas
- Design modular hardware capable of being manufactured at volume for future launch sites across the world
- Apply interdisciplinary engineering skills in fields of system-level process design and initial sizing, detailed pressurized fluid and thermal analysis, structural engineering, materials, and component selection, and cost/schedule optimization
- Work directly with technicians and support groups to build your designs, and fix real-world problems on the fly
- Maintain a tight feedback loop with the launch operations team to rapidly alter plans as necessary to meet tight deadlines
- Activate and troubleshoot equipment to achieve design objectives and iterate system maintenance strategies to reduce future downtimes
- Independently evaluate complex problems and arrive at solutions to seemingly impractical problems that best support the program
- Hands-on approach to tackling daily field projects necessary to keep the company launching rockets

## BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

- Bachelor’s degree in physics, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering, or other engineering discipline
- 1+ years of hands-on build or design experience (internship, club, and competition team experience qualifies)

## PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

- Ability to work independently as well as part of a team, take initiative, and communicate effectively
- Ability to rapidly change roles/responsibilities while maintaining a high sense of urgency in a high-paced, challenging work environment
- Willingness to perform other related duties to ensure an efficient and effective work environment
- Experience with quick thinking and problem-solving in stressful situations
- Experience solving challenges posed by short deadlines
- Strong fundamental intuition of fluid and/or structural/mechanical systems
- Creativity to imagine and design for reliability, efficiency, and maintainability from scratch
- General hands-on experience with machining, welding, and other fabrication techniques is a plus
- Experience with instrumentation, testing, data review and analysis, verification against a model
- 3+ years of mechanical, fluids, or thermal design experience in an industrial setting or equivalent
- Experience with high-pressure and cryogenic fluid systems and components
- Experience producing drawings for welders and machine shop fabrication
- Collaborative team player, eager to find the best solution while balancing cost and schedule
- Acute attention to detail, ability to see interactions with other systems to avoid problems
- Intermediate skill level using CAD (NX a plus)
- Ability to verify designs with simplified hand calculations; experience in finite element analysis (FEA) or computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a plus
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) piping and pressure vessel design experience
- Creative and passionate approach to addressing opportunities and challenges, and an enthusiastic, self-motivated, positive can-do attitude
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills

## ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

- Ability to respond to emergencies to support priority projects, missions, and launches
- Ability to work extended hours and weekends as needed; flexibility is required
- Ability to work in extreme outdoor environments when needed – heat, cold, wind, rain, etc.
- Ability to work in an environment requiring exposure to fumes, odors, and noise
- Working conditions may be in tight quarters and physical dexterity is required
- Ability to perform job duties that require standing, kneeling, crouching, twisting upper body, working in cramped positions in small openings, and climbing hand over hand
- Ability to lift heavy objects up to 25 lbs. unassisted
- Ability to work on ladders, lifts, and at elevated heights (up to 300 feet) with proper personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Stand: Up to 6 hours per day
- Sit: Up to 6 hours per day
- Push/Pull: Up to ≤ 50 lbs. (unassisted) 15 minutes or less per day
- Overhead reach: Up to 3 hours per day
- Walk: Up to 10 hours per day
- Lift/Carry: Up to ≤ 25 lbs. (unassisted) 15 minutes or less per day
- Climb (ladder/stairs): Up to 1 hour per day
- Kneel/Crouch: Up to 3 hours per day
- Upper body twist: Up to 3 hours per day
- Ability to work in temperatures over 80 degrees 6 hours or greater per day
- Candidate must be capable of safely working at heights (up to 500ft), in confined spaces, operating heavy equipment and machinery, and performing the physical requirements of the job listed in the job description. Candidate may be required to complete a pre-employment questionnaire and/or physical to confirm these capabilities, which may include a medical history review

## 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](https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987).

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX 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.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to EEOCompliance@spacex.com.

## About SpaceX

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft while building a global satellite broadband network and AI infrastructure to enable interplanetary life.
- **Entity Type**: Public (Nasdaq: SPCX) – IPO priced at $135/share on June 12, 2026
- **Headquarters**: Starbase, Texas (primary); Hawthorne, California (historical headquarters)
- **Founded**: 2002
- **Founders**: Elon Musk

## Core Business
- **Industries**: Aerospace & Defense, Spaceflight, Satellite Telecommunications, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target Customers**: Government (NASA, U.S. Armed Forces, international agencies), Commercial satellite operators, Broadband consumers (Starlink), Defense/intelligence (Starshield)
- **Mission**: To make humanity multiplanetary by building the integrated hardware and software infrastructure of the future across space, connectivity, and AI.

## Products & Services
- **Falcon 9**: Reusable two-stage rocket – the world’s most launched orbital rocket, with over 630 successful first-stage reflights.
- **Falcon Heavy**: Heavy-lift launch vehicle composed of three Falcon 9 cores; capable of lifting nearly 64 metric tons to orbit.
- **Starship**: Fully reusable super-heavy launch vehicle and spacecraft (largest ever built) designed for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
- **Dragon 2**: Crew and cargo spacecraft used for NASA Commercial Crew and private missions to the ISS and beyond.
- **Starlink**: Low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation providing high-speed, low-latency broadband internet to over 10.3 million people globally.
- **Starshield**: Military-grade satellite services for national security and defense customers.
- **SpaceXAI**: Division focused on AI compute infrastructure, frontier models, and real-time data processing (including AI compute satellites).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Conflicting reports – Internal share offer in 2025 valued SpaceX at **$800 billion**; IPO pricing (June 2026) implied a market capitalization of approximately **$75 billion** for the shares offered.
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue of **$15.0 billion** (2025); total funding raised **$15.2 billion** across 56 rounds.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Google (led $1B Series G), Intesa Sanpaolo, NASA, U.S. Space Force, and numerous institutional investors.
- **Growth Signals**: Employee headcount of **11,387** (monthly growth +2.5%); **1,671 active job postings**; Falcon 9 launch cadence of 1–3 per week; Starlink subscriber base covering ~10.3 million people; recent acquisition of xAI (February 2026).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Full reusability**: Only company with a fleet of reusable orbital rockets (Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy), dramatically lowering per-launch cost.
- **Vertical integration**: Designs, manufactures, and operates its own rockets, spacecraft, satellite constellation, and AI platform – enabling rapid iteration and cost control.
- **Scale and reliability**: More orbital launches per year than any other provider (public or private); proven track record with NASA and DoD.
- **First-mover in commercial spaceflight**: Established crew transport, satellite internet, and now AI compute in orbit.

## Strategic Focus
- **Starship development**: Complete testing and operational deployment of the fully reusable Starship system for lunar (Artemis) and Mars missions.
- **Starlink expansion**: Grow subscriber base, launch V3 satellites, and extend mobile and direct-to-cell services.
- **AI integration**: Leverage SpaceXAI for on-orbit compute and real-time data analytics; build AI compute satellites.
- **Interplanetary infrastructure**: Develop technologies for sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Employees directly contribute to making life multiplanetary – “hard work and innovative solutions result in big gains.”
- **Impactful projects**: Work on reusable rockets, crewed spacecraft, global broadband, and AI systems that are actively changing the space industry.
- **Compensation**: Competitive salaries, comprehensive health benefits, and equity packages.
- **Work locations**: Primary campuses in Hawthorne, CA and Starbase, TX (with additional sites in Cape Canaveral, FL and Vandenberg, CA). Roles span engineering, software, manufacturing, and support.
- **Engineering culture**: Merit-based, fast-paced, with high ownership; top talent sourced from Tesla, Boeing, NASA JPL, and other aerospace leaders.
- **Open roles**: Over 1,600 active positions across software, AI, avionics, propulsion, supply chain, and more – including internships.

## Sources
1. [SpaceX Careers Page](https://www.spacex.com/careers)
2. [LinkedIn – SpaceX Company Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/spacex)
3. [SpaceX IPO Factsheet (PDF)](https://content.spacex.com/cms-assets/FINAL_Documents%20and%20Updates/SpaceX%20IPO_Factsheet.pdf)
4. [SpaceX IPO Pricing Press Release](https://ir.spacex.com/updates/releases-details/2026/Space-Exploration-Technologies-Corp--Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx)
5. [SpaceX Jobs Board (Greenhouse)](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/spacex)

## Other roles at SpaceX

- [CNC Specialist (NX CAM) - Blades & Vanes](https://feeny.ai/job/cnc-specialist-nx-cam-blades-vanes-spacex-bastrop-e68yy8a0j64d) — Bastrop, TX
- [Thermal Development Technician, Robotic Welding (Starship)](https://feeny.ai/job/thermal-development-technician-robotic-welding-starship-spacex-starbase-yqmzqsw8pyah) — Starbase, TX
- [Welding Engineer (Starship)](https://feeny.ai/job/welding-engineer-starship-spacex-starbase-z0zrxryrqszb) — Starbase, TX
- [Equipment Reliability Engineer (Starship)](https://feeny.ai/job/equipment-reliability-engineer-starship-spacex-starbase-r2r8xxvvykyc) — Starbase, TX
- [Application Software Engineer, Internal Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/application-software-engineer-internal-systems-spacex-starbase-9rnsx3q0cyry) — Starbase, TX
- [Sr. Full Stack Engineer, MES (Manufacturing Execution System)](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-full-stack-engineer-mes-manufacturing-execution-system-spacex-bastrop-1gyzme2f3f1j) — Bastrop, TX
- [Full Stack Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-spacex-bastrop-n75e0act3wmn) — Bastrop, TX
- [Full Stack Software Engineer, Internal Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-internal-systems-spacex-hawthorne-b72wbzcr99xr) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Merchandising Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/merchandising-associate-spacex-starbase-gedk4n16vt1h) — Starbase, TX
- [Supervisor, NDE Operations (Starship)](https://feeny.ai/job/supervisor-nde-operations-starship-spacex-starbase-6f3d8eat9aam) — Starbase, TX