Principal Welding Engineer

Department: Manufacturing · Location: Redondo Beach

About the role

As a Principal Weld Engineer at Impulse you will help develop, qualify and optimize welding designs and processes with 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, Deneb’s thrust chamber and preburner assemblies, and valve components across all of the company’s vehicles. You will interface daily with design and manufacturing engineers to make welding judgment calls, enforce standardized practices, and drive improvements on multiple welded assemblies.

Helios is Impulse’s new vehicle—a 3rd stage/kick stage launching in 2027 designed to take satellites and payloads to GEO for one-third of today’s cost. Deneb is Impulse’s 15 k-lbf thrust LOX-methane staged-combustion engine.

Responsibilities

• Develop, optimize, and qualify weld processes and parameters for laser beam welding, friction stir welding, gas tungsten arc welding, orbital tube welding, and related processes.
• Work closely with design, tooling, automation, and development engineers to improve welded designs for manufacturability.
• Develop and implement improved process control using test and NDE results as feedback.
• Support production operations on full-scale welded assemblies, providing direction to manufacturing engineers and welders in a fast-paced 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.
• Collaborate with NDE personnel to interpret weld quality on development and flight hardware and to develop innovative NDE techniques.
• Set up automated welding solutions to drive process consistency.
• Scope out new welding technologies that may improve rate, quality, or efficiency.
• Support design, manufacturing, and materials engineering with root-cause analysis.

Requirements

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

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in welding engineering or a related technical program.
• 8+ years of hands-on welding experience with aluminum, nickel-based, stainless steel, titanium, and copper alloys.
• 8+ years of experience with brazing, joining, and metallographic interpretation.
• Fundamental understanding of welding processes including 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 consistency.
• Understanding of weld strength testing methodologies, standards, and data acquisition systems (ASTM E8, E399, E740, ISO 15653, AWS D17.X, AWS C7.X, thermocouples, strain gages, etc.).
• Experience with root-cause analysis and corrective actions including optical and SEM fractography/metallography, hardness, chemical analysis, and mechanical testing.
• Self-motivated, driven, and high attention to detail.

Pay

$190,000 – $225,000 per year.

Benefits

• Eligibility for long-term incentives in the form of stock options.
• Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including ITAR and EAR. This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable agencies.