Manager, Machine Maintenance

Hawthorne, CA

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.

MANAGER, MACHINE MAINTENANCE

The Machine Maintenance Manager oversees a team of skill-diverse maintenance technicians who are solely responsible for ensuring SpaceX critical assets are operating daily, as designed, and at full effectiveness. They cover a large fleet of machine and system types including, but not limited to, precision CNC machining, robotic inspection equipment, complex ground fluid systems, automated electronics assembly lines, and high-powered welding apparatuses. It is the Machine Maintenance Manager’s responsibility to instill good, effective, and on-time tactical maintenance response to minimize company downtime and promote a fast-paced but painstakingly reliable repair culture.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Ensure tactical maintenance teams practice and uphold on-time and low-variance production preventative maintenance execution
  • Execute risk-based prioritization for unexpected asset downtime tickets; drive individualized ownership via balanced tactical technician silos
  • Manage and communicate company-level updates during critical path NTL downtime events, ensure production managers understand asset configuration upon validation
  • Manage ongoing relationships with commodities vendors, assess daily consumption and telemetry levels on all critical DI, gas, and cryogenic tank farms, and act accordingly
  • Deploy training strategy for common reliability and maintenance utilized work tools; standardize tactical teams' use and knowledge of effective online tools for maintenance
  • Ensure that maintenance employees have the training, tools, and materials they need to safely carry out their duties
  • Work with EH&S and Supply Chain to ensure all internal resources follow SpaceX best practices
  • Attend asset design reviews to provide feedback as pertaining to maintenance operations
  • Deliver upon tactical team maintenance metrics to hold supervisors and silos accountable
  • Provide direct and technical feedback from downtime findings to maintenance and reliability engineering to drive improvement plans, engage technicians in first pass root cause analysis during repairs
  • Promote collaboration between teams for efficient utilization of skillsets
  • Initiate internal technical training for common SpaceX OEM maintenance to de-couple expensive and slow external labor
  • Develop and submit appropriate ROI strategies for external vs internal annual maintenance plans on common OEM assets
  • Collaborate with business partners to drive change where necessary to improve asset reliability and operational efficiency

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or 4+ years of experience in one or more of the following: 
    • Engineering 
    • Production operations 
    • Supply chain management 
    • Military operations 
  • 2+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing or production  
  • 4+ years of experience in industrial maintenance, reliability, or ground systems

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

  • 2+ years of experience in a SpaceX leadership role
  • Ability to rapidly change priorities while working in a high-paced, challenging work environment; is excellent with progressive organizational tools for maintenance ops
  • Technical leader who understands complex industrial precision machining equipment, specialized weld machines, heat treat furnaces, pressure systems, and inspection methods
  • Advanced knowledge of machine troubleshooting techniques; highly skilled in electrical troubleshooting
  • 3+ years of experience utilizing SpaceX maintenance tools, software, and WARP functionality for driving production machine repairs and root cause
  • Hands-on experience repairing equipment controls systems, machine subsystems, and diverse subsets of industrial automation
  • Developed understanding of mechanical, fluid, and electrical components
  • Ability to read and understand equipment schematics and OEM manuals
  • Demonstrates critical thinking and problem-solving skills
  • Detail-oriented, organized, and able to demonstrate a high sense of urgency
  • Strong interpersonal and diplomacy skills
  • Excellent skill level using Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Power Point, Outlook), Smartsheet, Jira and other organizational software

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

  • Must be able to work extended hours and weekends as needed
  • Must be able to stand for extended periods of time
  • Must be able to lift and carry equipment up to 25 lbs. unassisted
  • Ability to work in outdoor environments as needed
  • Willing to travel for short trips as needed, up to 10% travel

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:                      

Pay range:         
Manager: $130,000.00 - $180,000.00/per year         

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

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.  

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. 

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at SpaceX? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

Select...
Select...
Select...
Portfolio or Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

If event or other, please specify below.

Select...

Please convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale. Select "Not applicable/Do not recall" if you do not have or do not remember your undergraduate GPA. 

Select...

Please convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale. Select "Not applicable/Do not recall" if you do not have or do not remember your graduate GPA. 

Select...

Please convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale. Select "Not applicable/Do not recall" if you do not have or do not remember your doctorate GPA. 

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITAR here.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in SpaceX’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.