Sr. Manufacturing Engineer

About the role
As Joliet’s first Sr. Manufacturing Engineer, you will be responsible for designing “the machine that builds the machine” - ushering in a new era of automated shipbuilding and borrowing lessons from the automotive/aerospace industry.

We will work with cross-functional teams throughout the entire lifecycle of a product (from design through prototype development and into full production). Our goal is to develop high quality and efficient manufacturing equipment and processes that will produce ships of all shapes and sizes, eventually spanning from 100ft - 500ft+ in length.

As an early member of an exciting startup team, you’ll have an opportunity to shape the future of global shipbuilding and re-establish American leadership in maritime.

Prior experience with shipbuilding is not required, though nice to have. Strong alignment with our mission, however, is mandatory.

What you’ll do

• Develop manufacturing equipment and processes from pilot prototypes to full scale ramp
• Determine and procure equipment necessary for all manufacturing processes used to build products
• Develop new manufacturing processes
• Work with equipment integrators to design and manufacture equipment and fixtures for medium to high-volume production
• Manage suppliers during specification, design, buyoff and installation of manufacturing equipment
• Characterize and validate new equipment and fixtures for introduction to the production floor
• Determine layout of production workstations for product flow, ergonomics, and efficiency
• Perform process analysis, DOE, PFMEA, line balancing activities, and capacity modeling/simulation
• Create detailed manufacturing instructions to train technicians and line operators on new processes and equipment
  

About You

• Experience as a hands-on Mechanical/Manufacturing/Design Engineer working on mechanical and/or electromechanical systems
• Experience or familiarity with advanced manufacturing techniques at Tesla, SpaceX, or similar is strongly preferred
• Experience using 2D cad tools for conceptual line design (AutoCAD) and 3D design for mechanical equipment, fixturing, and tooling (SolidWorks or CATIA)
• Experience with conveyance, robotic systems, machine vision, GMAW/laser welding and automated functional testing
• Experience creating technical specifications for automated manufacturing equipment 
• Experience providing Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Automation (DFA) 
• Degree in mechanical, manufacturing, aerospace, or industrial engineering. Master’s degree preferred.
• High degree of comfort with ambiguity, with entrepreneurial experience highly desirable.

What working at Joliet will be like
What we are doing is extremely difficult. Many have failed before us. Success is a low-probability outcome, but the goal is so important that we believe it is worth pursuing. America must build ships at scale again.

Our expectations:

• You will be in our Austin, Texas office at minimum 40/hrs week, with 60+ likely. Our mission cannot be accomplished with remote work or traditional office hours.
• You will travel as-needed, whether to tour a shipyard/factory, visit potential suppliers or track down a logistics problem snarling production.
• You will leave your preconceived ideas at the door, building from first principles with a team of smart, motivated engineers.
• You will move fast, moving from modeling & simulation to bench test and back to simulation sometimes multiple times per day, treating every iteration as a critical learning opportunity.
• You will persevere even when the going gets tough - because it will get tough.
  

Compensation
$104,000-$178,200k base + .2-.5% equity

How equity works
At Joliet we are building for the long-term. We grant stock options because we believe every employee should own part of the company. Options are granted after you start and vest over five years from your full-time start date (20% after year 1, then 1/60 per month).

Equity in a private company is difficult to value, but potential future outcomes are presented below to give you a feel for our equity compensation program. The following is intended as an example and does not account for exercise price, dilution, or taxes:

.5% equity

At $200MM valuation: $1MM
At $2B valuation: $10MM
At $20B valuation: $100MM

How to apply
Fill out this form