TIG Welder (Starship)
Location
Hawthorne, CA
Wage
$23 – $38/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 22, 2026
Location
Hawthorne, CA
Wage
$23 – $38/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 22, 2026
SpaceX is actively developing technologies to enable human life on Mars. The TIG Welder (Starship) position involves welding, assembling, and fabricating various fluid systems and components.
At roughly $31/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $31/hr median for TIG welder jobs in Hawthorne, CA, whose middle half runs $31–$31/hr across 8 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 13% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. In other words it is a market-rate offer, so benefits, overtime, and shift schedule are where the real difference between this and the next posting on the list shows up.
We're tracking 36 other active welding openings in Hawthorne, CA right now, from 4 different employers. 7 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 603 other active welding openings from 300 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Hawthorne, or widen the search to California.
SpaceX currently has 30 other openings live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.
The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (30), Volt (15), and Honeywell Aerospace (14). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.
Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Redondo Beach at $51/hr, Long Beach at $40/hr, and Los Angeles at $40/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.
This posting calls for TIG. TIG (GTAW) uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode with filler added by hand, giving the operator the most control of any process. It is slow, demanding, and the standard for stainless, aluminum, and anything where the bead has to look as good as it holds.
See all TIG welder openings if you want to compare this against similar roles.
Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. TIG Welder (Starship) figures were last recalculated when this page was built.