Aerospace Welding Engineer
Houston, TX
About Intuitive Machines:
Intuitive Machines is an innovative and cutting-edge space company making cislunar space accessible to both public and private customers. Our mission is to further science and exploration, communications, and economic progress from the Earth to the Moon and beyond. With multiple NASA lunar missions in development and additional private missions on our manifest, we pride ourselves in supporting NASA, our customers, and the nation in paving the way to return humans to the surface of the Moon. Our world-class team includes experts in all aspects of spacecraft subsystems design, development, and test, on-orbit operations, and safety.
About the Position:
The Aerospace Welding Engineer will own and support welding and joining processes used to manufacture mission-critical spaceflight hardware. This role will translate design requirements into qualified, repeatable production processes; provide hands-on support to welders, technicians, suppliers, and inspectors; and ensure welded assemblies meet drawing, material, workmanship, and program requirements. The ideal candidate combines strong welding metallurgy and process-engineering fundamentals with practical experience delivering high-reliability aerospace hardware.
Responsibilities:
- Develop, qualify, release, and maintain welding procedures and supporting documentation, including WPS, PQR, and welder or operator qualifications, for applicable fusion, resistance, and solid-state joining processes.
- Serve as the technical authority for welding of flight and ground-support hardware, providing direction from design and material selection through fabrication, inspection, acceptance, and delivery.
- Review engineering drawings, weld symbols, specifications, joint designs, tolerances, and material callouts for producibility and compliance with program requirements.
- Establish and control essential process variables, tooling, shielding, cleanliness, fit-up, filler materials, heat input, preheat or post-weld heat treatment, and environmental controls.
- Evaluate weld metallurgy, distortion, residual stress, defect mechanisms, and compatibility for aluminum, stainless and high-strength steels, titanium, nickel-based alloys, and other aerospace materials.
- Define inspection and acceptance plans in partnership with Quality and NDE personnel, including visual, dimensional, penetrant, radiographic, ultrasonic, leak, proof, and metallographic examinations as applicable.
- Lead weld-related nonconformance investigations and root-cause analyses; develop repair procedures, corrective actions, and recurrence-prevention plans with Design, Stress, Materials and Processes, Quality, and Manufacturing teams.
- Support fracture-critical and pressure-system hardware reviews, design-for-manufacture trades, risk assessments, first-article builds, process capability studies, and production readiness reviews.
- Provide shop-floor support during setup, tack welding, welding, rework, repair, inspection, and test; train and mentor welders, technicians, and engineers on approved practices.
- Qualify and monitor external welding suppliers, review supplier procedures and records, and resolve technical issues affecting quality, schedule, or configuration control.
- Maintain complete, auditable manufacturing records and traceability for procedures, personnel qualifications, materials, equipment calibration, consumables, inspection results, and as-built configuration.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Welding Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 3+ years of engineering experience developing or supporting welding and joining processes for aerospace, defense, pressure systems, or other high-reliability hardware.
- Working knowledge of aerospace welding standards and qualification practices, including AWS D17.1/D17.1M and customer or program-specific requirements; ability to apply ASME Section IX or equivalent codes when required by the hardware.
- Experience creating and qualifying welding procedures and interpreting procedure qualification, welder qualification, and production weld records.
- Strong knowledge of welding metallurgy, joint design, weldability, heat treatment, distortion control, and common weld discontinuities and failure mechanisms.
- Hands-on experience with relevant process such as GTAW, GMAW, OTW Etc.
- Proficiency in reading engineering drawings, weld symbols, specifications, material certifications, and GD&T.
- Experience leading technical investigations, documenting objective evidence, and communicating dispositions and corrective actions across engineering and production teams.
- Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environment.
Preferred Requirements:
- Master's degree in Welding Engineering, Materials Science, Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
- International Welding Engineer, AWS Certified Welding Engineer, AWS Certified Welding Inspector, or equivalent certification.
- Experience with NASA-STD-5006, NASA-STD-6016, AWS D17.2/D17.2M, or other spaceflight materials and process specifications.
- Experience welding thin-wall tanks, tubing, pressure vessels, propulsion components, structural assemblies, or other fracture-critical flight hardware.
- Experience with titanium, nickel-based superalloys, stainless steels, high-strength steels, or dissimilar-metal joints.
- Familiarity with NDE method selection, weld process automation, statistical process control, metallographic evaluation, and laboratory failure analysis.
- ERP/MES and engineering collaboration experience using tools such as Boltline, Confluence, JIRA, or similar systems.
US EEO Statement:
Intuitive Machines is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.
