Job Description

Overview

As a Structures Technician at Impulse, you will be responsible for manufacturing metallic and composite structures for spacecraft, performing various assembly and fabrication tasks.

Responsibilities

  • Perform metallics assembly work such as drilling, bolting, applying safety wire, and installing bushings.
  • Hand drill, match drill, step drill, tap, countersink, and chamfer using pneumatic drills and hand tools.
  • Install fasteners, safety cable, inserts, use clecos, and bucking bars.
  • Bond and assemble thermal protection materials to metallic and composite structures.
  • Perform cleaning operations on metallic and composite structures using solvents.
  • Perform composites assembly work such as hand trimming, adhesive bonding, and fastener and insert installation.
  • Perform composites lamination work such as filament winding, vacuum bagging, oven curing, and tool preparation.
  • Operate cutting machines for composites raw materials and cured flat panels.
  • Apply coatings, sealants, adhesives, and primers to surfaces for surface protection and bonding.
  • Interface with engineering to identify work instructions and recommend engineering improvements.
  • Use basic shop tools such as saws, mills, drill presses, hand routers, de-burr tools, rotary tools, and sanders.
  • Perform hardware repairs such as removing fasteners, upsizing holes, removals, and thread chasing.
  • Install cryogenic seals and fittings.
  • Perform tube fabrication operations such as cutting, bending, flaring, proofing, and assembly of seals and fittings.
  • Review work instructions and specifications, and complete work buyoffs electronically as the work is being performed.

Requirements

  • High school diploma or equivalency certificate.
  • 3+ years of hands-on hardware manufacturing experience in a production environment.
  • 5+ years of demonstrated experience with structural assembly work on rockets, launch vehicles, or spacecraft (preferred).
  • Experience with drilling, reaming, countersinking tight-tolerance holes using electric or pneumatic tools (preferred).
  • Experience with composites lamination, vacuum bagging, and assembly work (preferred).
  • Ability to read and interpret drawings and blueprints, understands drawing symbols, flag notes, and section views (preferred).
  • Experience with hardware integration such as avionics, propulsion systems, pneumatics, and final clean (preferred).

Benefits

  • 401k
  • Health Insurance
  • Dental
  • Vision

Additional Information

  • Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.
  • Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity.
  • This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies.

Benefits

401k
Health Insurance
Dental
Vision

How this job compares in Redondo Beach, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $38/hr, this posting comes in about 36% below the $59/hr median for welding jobs in Redondo Beach, CA, where the middle half runs $38–$72/hr across 8 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 25% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. That gap is worth raising directly — in a market this size there is normally room to negotiate toward the median, particularly if you already hold the certifications the posting asks for.

The local market in Redondo Beach, CA

Redondo Beach, CA currently has 8 other active welding openings besides this one, spread across 3 employers. 5 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 627 other active welding openings from 306 employers. That's enough local activity to be worth comparing two or three offers before committing. Browse every welding job in Redondo Beach, or widen the search to California.

Impulse Space currently has 5 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 (31), Aerotek (16), and Volt (16). 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 $59/hr, Santa Ana at $48/hr, and Long Beach at $40/hr. Redondo Beach is among them.

Similar openings near Redondo Beach, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Structures Technician figures were last recalculated when this page was built.