Lead Hardware Reliability Engineer (Starlink)
SpaceX · Bastrop, TX
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Reliability
- Travel
- 30%
- Degree
- Required
- Experience asked
- 2+ years
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A management reliability role at SpaceX (aerospace & defense) in Bastrop, TX. You will be responsible for the reliability of the Starlink Product hardware from factory to field.
- They ask for
- 2+ years · degree required
- Tools it names
- Root cause, ISO 9001
- Day to day
- about 30% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Reliability Engineer roles in Texas: typical posted base $124k–$140k.
Median of the low and high ends of 10 live postings that list pay, out of 48 reliability engineer openings in Texas, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Texas plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 47 other live reliability postings in Texas.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Less than usual (2+ vs 5+)
Typical $124k–$140k, from 10 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 46%
- SAP 29%
- Team leadership 27%
- FMEA 25%
- Automation 25%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for ISO 9001, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Reliability team at SpaceX
We found 4 people at this company and state: 4 in this kind of role, plus 2 likely hiring managers. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Marcus → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- The posting says about 30% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
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If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: SpaceX in Bastrop
83 other open roles at this site · 4 people we found in reliability roles at SpaceX.
- Lead Operations Engineer · Production · Manager
- Sr. Supplier Development Engineer (Starlink) · Quality · Senior
- PECVD Process Engineer, Solar Cells (Starlink) · Process
- Facilities Engineer (Starlink) · Reliability
- Sourcing Specialist, OPEX (Starlink) · Lean / CI · Specialist
- Automation Engineer, Blades and Vanes Foundry · Controls
Full description from SpaceXAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Responsibilities
- ◆Leadership:
- ◆Lead and mentor a team of engineers and specialists focused on hardware reliability and field performance for the Starlink User Terminal Kit, including user terminals, Wi-Fi routers, power supplies, and cables.
- ◆Allocate resources across new product qualification campaigns, production reliability priorities, and field hardware investigations to ensure appropriate technical coverage, timely execution, and rapid troubleshooting of failures
- ◆Develop individual team members through technical mentorship, clear ownership, and opportunities aligned with individual growth and the strategic goals of the Starlink program
- ◆Partner closely with hardware design, software, manufacturing, and supply chain teams to proactively influence current and future designs and maximize reliability across the product lifecycle
- ◆Technical Scope:
- ◆Manage or lead technical investigations with tight timelines concerning isolated or fleet-wide performance or hardware issues that affect Starlink customers. Investigations may stem from test, production or field findings.
- ◆Develop and execute reliability qualification strategies for new and existing products to maximize field life, minimize early-life failures, and demonstrate readiness for mass production
- ◆Design and execute environmental, mechanical, electrical, RF, and system-level reliability testing tailored to product architecture, use conditions, and identified failure mechanisms to qualify changes in high volume manufacturing
- ◆Automate reliability test execution, data analysis, and reporting using appropriate data visualization and engineering tools to improve speed, repeatability, and technical decision-making
- ◆Define and monitor ongoing reliability testing and monitoring strategies to assess manufacturing process health and identify long-term reliability risks driven by process, material, and component variability
- ◆Define and monitor critical hardware and performance field metrics, such as product return rates, to identify and investigate product reliability shortcomings
- ◆Oversee production quality activities including containments, material review board (MRB), defect processing, quality metrics, training, and applicable command media for factory compliance
- ◆Identify manufacturing inefficiencies that impact product reliability and drive process improvements that increase first-pass yield, improve quality, reduce scrap, and accelerate issue detection and resolution
- ◆Maintain applicable quality system and ISO 9001
requirements
- ✓Lead root cause investigations for qualification, production, and field failures; identify immediate and underlying failure mechanisms and drive corrective actions to reduce product and process risk.
- ✓Perform telemetry and log analysis as well as hands-on debugging to drive to root cause and corrective action of failed phased-array, Wi-Fi, and power supply PCBAs in the field
- ✓Understand Wi-Fi standards and how the Starlink network operates
Qualifications
- ✓Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, materials engineering, manufacturing engineering, aerospace engineering, or another engineering discipline
- ✓2+ years of experience executing complex engineering projects in design qualification, manufacturing, hardware reliability, reliability test, or a production environment
- ✓1+ years of experience in a leadership position leading a team of 3+ engineers
Preferred skills and experience
- ✓Master’s degree in electrical, mechanical, materials, manufacturing, aerospace engineering, or a related engineering discipline
- ✓Experience developing and executing product qualification or hardware reliability strategies.
- ✓Experience developing objective test, inspection, and acceptance criteria
- ✓Strong understanding of reliability engineering principles, failure mechanisms, root cause investigation, and risk-based engineering decision-making
- ✓Experience developing environmental, mechanical, electrical, RF, or system-level test methods
- ✓Experience with PCB, PCBA, electromechanical assemblies, and complex hardware systems
- ✓Demonstrated ability to investigate complex hardware failures and drive corrective actions to closure
- ✓Experience with high-volume manufacturing and transitioning hardware from development into
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SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.
Lead hardware reliability engineer (starlink)
As a Lead Hardware Reliability Engineer , you will be responsible for the reliability of the Starlink Product hardware from factory to field. You will develop an intimate understanding of the Starlink system from hardware design to manufacturing processes, test procedures, RF, and network operation. You will lead a team whose priority is to minimize hardware failures and related customer downtime in the field. This is high visibility ownership which feeds into future product design, is involved in product launches, and one where you will regularly communicate findings to senior leadership.
You will set the strategy, and ownership plans for the team while aligning with management on longer-term development plans. You will be accountable for the team’s overall performance and development, teaching engineers how to solve problems, and staying closely involved in the top project and hardware concerns for this team. You will raise the team’s technical bar by providing tools, resources, trainings, and coaching to set a high standard for engineering, and hold partner teams accountable to timelines, goals, and expectations. You will also identify major and systemic issues within the team’s area of ownership, create projects to address them, and ensure the team meets all relevant ISO standards and requirements.