Tooling Design & Automation Engineer
Job description
About the role
This position focuses on building high-rate factory solutions for Starlink consumer electronics. You will manage the full lifecycle of production hardware, from initial design concepts to operational implementation, ensuring our manufacturing systems meet high-volume demands.
Key facts
What you'll do
- Lead factory design projects from ideation through to final hand-off to operations teams.
- Establish design criteria and optimize systems for reliability, safety, and speed.
- Improve production processes to maximize yield and throughput.
- Ensure all equipment, including robotics and conveyors, adheres to ANSI/RIA15.06 and OSHA safety standards.
- Manage project budgets and schedules while coordinating team efforts to meet milestones.
This role builds the high-rate factory solutions that manufacture Starlink consumer electronics. You will lead factory design projects from ideation through to final hand-off to operations teams, establish design criteria and optimize systems for reliability, safety, and speed, and improve production processes to maximize yield and throughput. The tooling you design directly enables high-volume production.
The role spans design, safety, and project management. You will ensure all equipment, including robotics and conveyors, adheres to ANSI/RIA15.06 and OSHA safety standards, and you will manage project budgets and schedules while coordinating team efforts to meet milestones. Because factory solutions touch so many disciplines, the work is highly collaborative.
Designing factory tooling requires a strong foundation in electromechanical or mechanical design and analysis. Candidates with expertise in Siemens NX, Teamcenter, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, and with experience in motion systems including actuators, robotics, gantries, and pneumatics or hydraulics, will be well prepared. Interest in PLC programming, HMI screen design, and electrical standards such as NEC, NFPA, and UL508A is also valued. The role involves significant travel to support factory implementation. It is an excellent opportunity for a mechanical design engineer who wants to see their work deployed in high-volume production environments and to own factory systems from concept through hand-off. The role rewards engineers who are hands-on, safety-conscious, and detail-oriented. It provides broad exposure across Starlink's manufacturing operations and a clear path to deeper automation and controls expertise. The work directly impacts how Starlink consumer electronics are made at scale.
Requirements
- Bachelor degree in science, physics, or engineering.
- Minimum 1 year of experience in electromechanical or mechanical design, testing, analysis, or manufacturing, including internships.
- Proficiency with FEA and CAD software.
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee to comply with U.S. export regulations.
Nice to have
- 2+ years of professional mechanical design and analysis experience.
- 2+ years of hands-on project experience, ideally in a team lead capacity.
- Expertise in Siemens NX, Teamcenter, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.
- Experience with motion systems, including actuators, robotics, gantries, and pneumatics/hydraulics.
- Familiarity with production machinery such as injection molders, die casters, and industrial sensors.
- Interest in learning PLC programming, HMI screen design, and electrical standards like NEC, NFPA, and UL508A.
Skills & tools
CAD and FEA software, Siemens NX and Teamcenter, motion control and robotics, industrial safety standards (OSHA, ANSI/RIA15.06), project management and budgeting.
Practical notes
Compensation: Mechanical Engineer Level 1 ($95,000 - $115,000) or Level 2 ($110,000 - $130,000) based on experience. Total rewards include stock options, long-term incentives, discretionary bonuses, and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k), life insurance, disability insurance, paid parental leave, 3 weeks of vacation, and 10+ paid holidays. Expect long hours and weekend work as required by critical project timelines. Travel requirement is 10% to 50% of the time.
About the company
Based in Starbase, Texas, a company pursues work in spaceflight, telecom, and artificial intelligence. A unit handles rocket launches, leading yearly orbital counts beyond other national and commercial teams. Another unit runs Starlink, a satellite communications firm. A third area, through SpaceXAI, advances Grok and AI integration with X, while managing data center operations. Roles often cross these paths. Candidates with engineering, software, or operations backgrounds may find chances to join projects that span launch, connectivity, and machine learning efforts in this Texas-based enterprise.