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.
SpaceX is currently seeking talented individuals for our Internship/Co-Op Program at our Hawthorne, CA location. SpaceX engineering interns play a significant role in the design, development, testing and manufacturing of spaceflight hardware. Here at SpaceX, you will obtain invaluable hands-on technical experience that you can’t learn in a classroom. Our engineering teams will help you to roll up your sleeves and apply text book theory and lab experience to creating solutions for real aerospace challenges. You will gain practical experience by participating in actual space hardware development projects. The most successful candidates for SpaceX’s Internship/Co-Op Program have a history of significant contributions to hands-on extracurricular engineering projects in addition to a strong academic record.
INTERNSHIP/CO-OP SUMMER 2018 (HAWTHORNE, CA)
SITE OVERVIEW:
Our Hawthorne location is SpaceX Headquarters where most of the design, production, and business operations take place.
GROUPS/DEPARTMENTS:
AVIONICS: Our Avionics group works to design, develop, manufacture, test, analyze and integrate all the electronic hardware and software for our vehicles. This includes but is not limited to: power conversion units, analog and digital circuit boards, FPGA’s, communication system units, and firmware as well as enclosure and wire harness development.
CUSTOMER OPERATIONS AND INTEGRATION: Our Customer Operations and Integration group is the main interface between the SpaceX technical teams and our customers and helps to ensure that our missions are successful and timely. They encompass the Space Operations team, which focuses on revolutionizing spaceflight operations for cargo and crew Dragon missions, as well as future company missions. This group contains roles in product management, business development and sales support, proposal development, and regulatory coordination.
LAUNCH ENGINEERING: The Hawthorne Launch site teams ensure successful launches and rocket recoveries. This team works on the coordination and design of all fluid systems to launch our rockets as well as automation and control systems of our launches. They constantly strive to streamline processes and improve vehicle reliability.
FLIGHT RELIABILITY: Our Flight Reliability group’s primary responsibility is to review and certify the vehicle’s test and flight readiness. The team works to maintain safe, reliable practices during operations and bridge operational and design challenges between test and launch. Flight Reliability interacts with the engineering, production, test and launch teams from the planning stage all the way to launch for the purpose of reviewing the vehicle configuration and status.
VEHICLE ENGINEERING: Our Vehicle Engineering team is responsible for the design, development, and qualification of hardware on all vehicles. They partner with engineering and production teams to generate ideas, designs, and improvements. This group includes but is not limited to: propulsion components, Dragon engineering, structures engineering, in-space propulsion, integration and test, vehicle analysis, thermal and fluid analysis, life support systems, dynamics, and guidance navigation and control.
PROPULSION: Our Propulsion group uses cutting edge technology to develop the latest rocket hardware. SpaceX currently builds more rocket engines than any other organization in the country, and furthermore, the design and performance parameters of our engines are notably recognized throughout the industry. The Propulsion group designs, analyzes, builds, and tests engines that will one day take mankind to Mars.
BUILD RELIABILITY: Our Build Reliability team ensures quality production of assemblies and piece parts that flow into the production of the vehicle. They proactively drive initiative to improve the vehicle reliability. The team develops standard tools, processes, methods, design adjustments, and requirements to ensure production reliability.
FLIGHT SOFTWARE: The flight software team is responsible for the software that runs on-board SpaceX rockets and spacecraft, but they do more than embedded software engineering: they also do simulations, distributed data management, and analysis tools used in preparation for a launch. Their problem domains span embedded, fault tolerant, flight control, web, mobile, cloud, and big data computing. The products that they develop run on low-power space computing platforms, mobile devices, desktop systems, and in data centers.
ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS: The EIS (Enterprise Information Systems) team writes the software that builds rockets and powers SpaceX. They are responsible for all of the software on the factory floor, the warehouses, the financial systems, the restaurant, and even the public home page. Elon has called them the "nervous system" of SpaceX because they connect all of the other teams at SpaceX to ensure that the entire rocket building process runs smoothly
MATERIALS ENGINEERING: Our Materials Engineering group focuses on finding materials solutions to expand the capabilities of current vehicles and to push design boundaries for our future ones. They cover a wide range of materials disciplines from alloy development, large scale composite structures, additive manufacturing, and traditional aerospace materials. This is a fast paced, hands on group that splits time between materials support for new designs, enabling re-usability of rockets, and materials research focused on interplanetary travel.
PRODUCTION: Leveraging best-practices from automotive, consumer electronics, and aerospace, SpaceX aims to scale its production rate beyond that of any other launch company in the world. The Production group provides hands-on experience in a fast-paced environment with cutting edge technology. The Production group includes but is not limited to: Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft Assembly, Tooling Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Automation and Controls, and Manufacturing Engineering.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: The Supply Chain Management group is responsible for developing and improving the business processes that enable SpaceX to design, build, launch, and reuse the most advanced rockets in the world. A Supply Chain Intern will help innovate and improve efficiencies to ensure that Supply Chain Management is continuously improving to meet its internal customer demands to achieve SpaceX’s overall mission of sending humans to Mars.
COMMUNICATIONS: The Communications team is responsible for the development and implementation of communication strategies to inspire the public’s interest in space exploration and support SpaceX’s position as an industry leader. The team works with groups across the company to help convey SpaceX’s story to key external audiences in an accurate, consistent, and compelling manner. The Communications group’s purview includes media relations, multimedia production, events, community relations, employee communications, and merchandising.
PURCHASING: The SpaceX purchasing team is responsible for ensuring lowest product cost and risk through supplier management, strategic negotiations; spend analysis and continuous process improvement. An intern joining this team would expect to gain first-hand experience analyzing supplier and spend data, communicating with suppliers, purchasing direct and/or indirect goods or services, and support of various projects like creating and implementing new processes.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
ITAR REQUIREMENTS:
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 notify the Human Resources Department at (310) 363-6000.