Operations Engineer (Starlink Product)

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.

OPERATIONS ENGINEER (STARLINK PRODUCT)

At SpaceX we’re leveraging our experience in building rockets and spacecraft to deploy Starlink, the world’s most advanced broadband internet system. Starlink is the world’s largest satellite constellation and is providing fast, reliable internet to millions of users worldwide. We design, build, test, and operate all parts of the system – thousands of satellites, consumer receivers that allow users to connect within minutes of unboxing, and the software that brings it all together. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of Starlink’s potential global impact and are looking for best-in-class engineers to help maximize Starlink’s utility for communities and businesses around the globe.

As an Operations Engineer, you will be responsible for the performance and reliability of customer hardware (dish, router, power supply, cables) once they leave the factory door. Specifically, you will work on product launches, field monitoring and investigations, troubleshooting customer support tooling, and the analysis of findings from defective hardware returns. Towards this end, you will build efficient data pipelines and processing of performance and reliability metrics and you will build and own dashboards to quickly give the organization detailed visibility on fleet performance. You will work on models to: help proactively identify and replace soon to be defective hardware, determine the proximate cause of hardware failures at time of replacement and before we get hands on the hardware, point out potential factory process issues which are leading to defective hardware, and otherwise identify out of family hardware which is leading to poor customer experience. This role also feeds into future product design trades.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead technical investigations with tight timelines by diving into isolated or fleet-wide performance or reliability issues which affect our customers and present findings to executives


• Build and maintain critical infrastructure, tools, processes, and custom software to objectively assess the performance and reliability of Starlink customer hardware


• Run internal betas and product launches to identify and resolve any design issues in the hardware or software of new products ahead of their public launch


• Apply data science and statistical inference skills to analyze data and build models that help improve customer experience and drive business growth


• Drive improvements in our technical customer support tooling and processes to improve the time to resolution of customer issues


• Build and maintain data pipelines, automated metric aggregation, and dashboards to give visibility and alert on a variety of metrics


• Consistently contribute effort, leadership, and creative thinking to solving complex problems in a collaborative fashion and under tight deadlines


• Create custom datasets, analyses, and analytics tools that will be used by internal teams and stakeholders to monitor, analyze, and impact business outcomes


• Build relationships and collaborate across disciplines including engineering, production, test, inventory, quality, supply chain, and customer experience to drive positive business outcomes

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, data analysis, or other STEM discipline


• 1+ years of experience with SQL


• 1+ years of experience with data analysis in Python/R

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 1+ years of experience with Bash scripting


• Strong coding skills: clean, efficient, and well-documented code with a foundation in software design principles


• Familiarity with data science and machine learning fundamentals (regression, classification, clustering, anomaly detection)


• Strong analytical skills: statistical analysis, data visualization, and quantitative reasoning


• Experience building predictive models and analytics pipelines


• Experience with developing and deploying tools used for data analysis


• Experience in a technical operational role under the pressure of a live service or production environment


• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to make presentations to engineers, team members, internal customers, and management


• High-volume production experience (e.g., consumer goods or automotive)


• Proven ability to build efficient analytics pipelines and applications


• Experience in electrical, RF, Wi-Fi, and network engineering


• Ability to work effectively in a dynamic environment that includes working with changing needs and requirements


• Ability to identify customer needs, gather requirements, and execute independently


• Ability to take on projects that require initiative and developing new expertise

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• This position is based in Bastrop, TX (near Austin) and requires being on-site


• Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed


• Must be willing to travel for work

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.  

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to [email protected].