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Job Description

Overview

SpaceX is developing technologies to enable human life on Mars, and the New Graduate Engineer for Starship Components will work on advanced spacecraft and launch vehicle components, focusing on hardware expertise for critical systems. This role involves collaboration across manufacturing, design, testing, and machining to ensure mission success.

Responsibilities

  • Partner with production and design to improve weekly Starship delivery rates and reduce costs.
  • Assemble design criteria and perform structural analysis for component design.
  • Target zero in-flight anomalies and reduce production delays through root-cause investigations.
  • Design and validate automated test systems for flight hardware.
  • Define manufacturing strategies and implement CNC programming for parts.

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or physics.
  • 1+ years of mechanical and/or fluids engineering experience.
  • Graduating in Fall/Winter of 2026 or Spring/Summer of 2027.
  • Hands-on experience in fluid systems, high-voltage systems, or instrumentation.
  • Strong foundation in solid mechanics, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics.
  • Ability to analyze complex engineering datasets.
  • Understanding of electromechanical devices and related systems.
  • Minimum GPA of 3.5/4.0 or higher.

Benefits

  • 401k
  • Health Insurance
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • PTO

Additional Information

  • Ability to work extended hours and weekends as necessary.

Benefits

401k
Health Insurance
Dental
Vision
PTO
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How this job compares in Hawthorne, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $55/hr, this posting sits about 78% above the $31/hr median for welding jobs in Hawthorne, CA — toward the top of a $31–$60/hr middle band drawn from 42 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 71% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. Pay that far above local median usually comes attached to something: a harder cert requirement, travel, night shift, or overtime that isn't really optional. Worth establishing which before you accept.

The local market in Hawthorne, CA

We're tracking 46 other active welding openings in Hawthorne, CA right now, from 5 different employers. 18 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 514 other active welding openings from 242 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 36 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 (36), Relativity Space (18), and Welding Shop in Los Angeles, CA (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 El Segundo at $53/hr, Pasadena at $50/hr, and Long Beach at $49/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Similar openings near Hawthorne, CA

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