Reliability EngineerThe RoleYou are our first Reliability Engineer, so you are not inheriting a process: you are deciding what it is. There is a well-worn reliability playbook in this industry, developed at large primes on programs with hundreds of engineers, and most of it will make us slower without making the rocket better. Your job is to figure out which parts earn their keep here, implement those, and leave the rest on the shelf.
You own how we reason about failure across the vehicle and the engines: where the single points of failure are, which ones we accept and why, where redundancy actually buys something versus just adding parts and interfaces, what test data says about margin, and what we do about the anomaly we saw on the stand last week. You will sit with the propulsion, structures, and avionics engineers rather than in a separate assurance org.
What You'll Do- Decide what reliability toolkit this program runs on, write it down short enough that people follow it, and defend every inclusion and omission
- Pick analysis depth per subsystem instead of applying one standard everywhere - some interfaces deserve a full FMECA, some deserve a one-page failure walkdown, some deserve nothing
- Own the failure analyses: FMEA/FMECA, fault trees, single-point-failure identification, common-cause assessment, and the redundancy trades that follow
- Work the physics of failure, not just the statistics - fatigue, thermal cycling, cryogenic effects, contamination, wear, and the failure modes peculiar to LOX and LNG service
- Define what each test needs to prove, and get that instrumentation into the plan before the article is built
- Run failure review and corrective action fast enough that engineers use it voluntarily
- Build the lightest tooling that work: Python and version control, not an enterprise suite
- Teach. The leverage is not the analyses you run, it is the engineers who start thinking about failure modes before they get to you.
What We're Looking For- 5-8 years in reliability, mission assurance, or systems engineering with real reliability ownership, on hardware where failure had consequences
- Command of the core methods: FMECA, fault tree analysis, common-cause analysis, allocation, Weibull and life-data analysis
- The judgment to right-size. You have seen reliability process applied where it did not belong, and you have opinions about the alternative
- Physics-of-failure instinct: you want to know why the part broke, not just how often parts like it break
- Hands-on test experience. You have stood next to hardware, watched it misbehave, and worked the anomaly to root cause
- Python sufficient to run Monte Carlos, fit life data, and build tools your teammates use without your help
- Statistical honesty about small samples. When a number rests on four data points and an assumed distribution, you say so instead of quoting three significant figures
- Willingness to make a call on incomplete information, state the assumptions, and revise
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, or similar.
Nice to Have- Launch vehicle or liquid rocket engine experience, especially cryogenic
- Rotating machinery reliability: turbopumps, bearings, seals, dynamic environments
- Propulsion or structural test experience, including instrumentation planning and data reduction
- Experience standing up a reliability function from nothing
- Probabilistic risk assessment or structural reliability background
- Supplier quality or nonconformance experience, and the composure for a hard vendor conversation
- Reusable vehicle experience: inspection, refurbishment, reliability across flights of the same article
Compensation and BenefitsThe salary range for this position is
$140,000 - 185,000 annually.
The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.- Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
- Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k) retirement savings plan
- Paid time off
- 10 paid holidays per calendar year
- Paid parental leave
- Relocation assistance if applicable
- Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks
ITAR Requirements- Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITAR here.
DisclaimerThis job description is a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the job and position. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties and responsibilities. Contents are subject to change at Cowboy Space Corp.'s discretion.
