Principal Welding Engineer

Principal Welding Engineer -------------------------

Department: Manufacturing Employment Type: Full Time Location: Redondo Beach Compensation: $190,000 - $225,000 per year

Description: As a Principal Weld Engineer at Impulse, you will help develop, qualify, and optimize welding designs and processes with both laser beam, gas tungsten arc welding, friction stir welding, and orbital tube welding. This role will be integral to performing weld developments on Helios main structural tank, Denebs thrust chamber, and preburner assemblies, and valve components across all of our vehicles. The welding engineer in this role will interface daily with design and manufacturing engineers to make welding judgment calls and improvements and will enforce standardized practices and procedures on multiple welded assemblies.

Helios is Impulses new vehicle, a 3rd stage kick stage. Launching in 2026, it is designed to take satellites & payloads to GEO for 1/3 of todays current cost. Deneb is Impulses 15k lb thrust lox methane staged combustion engine.

Responsibilities:

• Develop, optimize, and qualify weld processes and parameters for multiple welding processes, including but not limited to laser beam welding, friction stir welding, gas tungsten arc welding, orbital tube welding.
• Work closely with design, tooling, automation, and development engineers to improve welded designs for manufacturing.
• Develop and implement improved process control where possible using test and NDE results as a feedback loop.
• Support production operations on full-scale welded assemblies, providing direction to manufacturing engineers and welders on correct techniques in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Support on-site manufacturing and development of Helios tank, Deneb engine weldments, and Mira components.
• Set up welding qualification test campaigns and interpret mechanical testing and NDE results.
• Work closely with NDE personnel to interpret weld quality on development and flight hardware, in addition to developing and implementing innovative state-of-the-art NDE techniques.
• Set up automated welding solutions in an effort to drive process consistency.
• Scope out new welding technologies that may be employed to improve rate, quality, efficiency.
• Support design, manufacturing, and materials engineering with root cause analysis.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in an engineering discipline or related field.
• 10 years of experience with hands-on fabrication, manufacturing, or testing experience of welded assemblies.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Masters degree in welding engineering or related technical program.
• 8 years of demonstrated hands-on welding experience of aluminum, nickel-based, stainless steel, titanium, and copper alloys.
• 8 years of demonstrated experience with brazing, joining, and metallographic interpretation.
• Fundamental understanding of welding processes, including but not limited to laser beam, friction stir, gas tungsten arc, gas metal arc, electron beam, plasma arc, and resistance welding.
• Robot programming experience for automated welding solutions.
• Tooling design experience for welded assemblies to reduce part distortion and improve part consistency.
• Understanding of weld strength testing methodologies, standards, and data acquisition systems used to make informed welding decisions (ASTM E8, E399, E740, ISO 15653, AWS D17.X, AWS C7.X, thermos-couples, strain gages, etc.).
• Experience with root cause analysis and corrective actions, including but not limited to optical and SEM fractography, metallography, hardness, chemical analysis, and mechanical testing.
• Self-motivated, driven, and high attention to detail.

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.
• In addition to base salary for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and access to medical, vision, & dental coverage, as well as access to a 401k retirement plan.
• Impulse Spaces spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident, green card holder, an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.
• Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment with Impulse Space 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.