Senior Materials and Process Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States. Employees must be authorized to work in the U.S. and qualify as a U.S. person for access to 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 payloads, reentry capsules, heat shields, and satellite buses, with production and testing based in-house.

What you will do

• Develop, qualify, control, and improve special processes for flight hardware, including TPS, ablatives, coatings, polymers, composites, adhesives, wet chemistry, corrosion control, and metallic structures.
• Define experiments, test methods, pathfinder hardware, process windows, acceptance criteria, tooling, fixtures, cleanliness, contamination control, and material-handling requirements.
• Author and maintain special process specifications, qualification and validation records, control plans, and supplier requirements.
• Lead RCCAs, MRB activities, failure review boards, and investigations of material and process non-conformances.
• Characterize materials and processes through mechanical, thermal, chemical, microstructural, and NDE testing, including laboratory analysis.
• Influence material decisions across teams while mentoring and helping hire engineers as production scales.

Requirements

• B.S. in Materials Science, Metallurgical, Chemical, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• 3+ years of materials and process engineering experience in aerospace, semiconductor, or another high-reliability industry.
• Experience developing and qualifying materials and processes for flight or safety-critical hardware, including first-article builds and standards such as AWS, AMS, or ASTM.
• Experience authoring specifications, design guidance, acceptance criteria, drawing callouts, test reports, and technical investment cases for internal use and suppliers.
• Experience with thermal, chemical, mechanical, and NDE characterization; process windows; DOE, SPC, process capability, measurement-system analysis, regression, statistical tolerancing, material allowables, acceptance criteria, and sampling plans.
• Deep expertise in at least one listed area, including TPS and ablatives, composites, polymers and adhesives, coatings and surface treatment, wet chemical processing and corrosion control, welding metallurgy, heat treatment, additive manufacturing, or NDE.
• Experience with aerospace metals and processing, corrosion mechanisms, chemical compatibility, wet chemical bath control, precision cleaning, cleanliness verification, and hazardous, reactive, or oxidizing fluids.
• Experience leading RCCAs, failure analysis, material dispositions, PFMEAs, control plans, and cross-functional investigations using methods such as fractography, metallography, SEM/EDS, and chemical analysis.
• Experience setting materials and process requirements for space environments, including outgassing, contamination control, electrical bonding and grounding, thermal cycling, and UV exposure.
• Must be able to regularly lift 25 lbs., bend, stoop, and stand for extended periods while working with flight hardware.

Nice to have

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline, or AMPP/NACE certification.
• Experience with reentry, hypersonic, propulsion, spacecraft thermal-control, finishing, polymer/composite scale-up, wet-process lines, high-purity water systems, oxidizers, hypergols, pharmaceutical materials, accelerated corrosion testing, or advanced statistical and characterization methods.
• Experience scaling production processes, qualifying and auditing special-process suppliers, or building a materials and processes function and in-house laboratory.
• Recognized subject-matter expertise demonstrated through technical direction, standards roles, publications, patents, or standards-committee participation.

Culture & Benefits

• Work directly with design engineers, technicians, and suppliers across the full materials and processes lifecycle.
• Operate in an environment where decisions must be made quickly while infrastructure is being established.
• Eligible for stock options and/or long-term cash incentives.
• Equal opportunity workplace with evaluation based on merit, qualifications, and performance.