Senior Manufacturing Engineer - Thermal Protection System (TPS)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States. Regularly lift 25 lbs., bend, stoop, and stand for extended periods while working directly with hardware. U.S. person status is required to access export-controlled technology.

Salary: $140,333–$202,703 per year, plus potential stock options and/or long-term cash awards.

Company

hirify.global develops commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing, reentry capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses, with vehicles and production operations based in-house.

What you will do

• Own TPS manufacturing processes, including ablative tile and panel preparation, bonding, densification, and closeout operations.
• Develop and maintain work instructions, process travelers, and process specifications for TPS fabrication and installation.
• Implement surface preparation, adhesive application, and cure-cycle procedures that meet bond-strength and thermal-performance requirements.
• Collaborate with TPS design engineers on DFM feedback covering tile geometry, bond-joint design, and tooling access.
• Define inspection and verification methods, integrate quality gates, and lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for TPS non-conformances.
• Control environmental conditioning requirements and assess or procure TPS-specific bonding, preparation, templating, and handling tooling.

Requirements

• B.S. in Materials Science, Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related discipline; equivalent professional experience may be considered, typically with 3–6+ years.
• 3+ years of manufacturing experience with thermal protection systems, composite materials, or advanced material bonding in aerospace or defense.
• Hands-on experience with ablative or reusable TPS materials such as PICA, AVCOAT, SLA-561, cork composites, ceramic tiles, or equivalent.
• Experience with adhesive bonding, surface preparation, and cure-cycle control for structural or TPS bonds.
• Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings and TPS assembly models, with familiarity with GD&T applied to complex surface geometries.
• Experience writing and maintaining manufacturing process documentation for specialized materials operations.
• Physical ability to regularly lift 25 lbs., bend, stoop, and stand for extended periods while working directly with hardware.

Nice to have

• Direct TPS manufacturing experience for reentry vehicles, hypersonic glide vehicles, or planetary entry capsules.
• Familiarity with TPS inspection methods, including visual inspection, tap testing, and applicable NDE methods.
• Knowledge of TPS material properties such as ablation rates, density gradients, and outgassing behavior.
• Experience with environmental controls and material handling for moisture-sensitive TPS materials.
• Experience transitioning bespoke TPS development builds into repeatable, documented production processes.
• Experience with robotic or semi-automated TPS tile application processes.
• Familiarity with reentry thermal analysis and translating TPS design margins into manufacturing quality requirements.
• Prior work at a company with demonstrated reentry or hypersonic vehicle flight heritage.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an in-house aerospace production environment building, integrating, and testing spacecraft vehicles, equipment, and materials.
• Access to a technically specialized manufacturing domain focused on reentry thermal protection systems.
• Eligibility for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
• Employment is subject to U.S. work authorization and U.S. person requirements for export-controlled technology.