Project Kuiper is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite broadband network. Its mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world, and we’ve designed the system with the capacity, flexibility, and performance to serve a wide range of customers, from individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.
Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
The success of Kuiper depends on the quality, reliability, cost, integration, throughput, and security of the products delivered. It is a fast-paced, dynamic environment. As part of the Kuiper team, you will solve difficult problems where resolutions have high impact, and help create a brand new set of launch site processes and standards. To be successful you need to be highly motivated and detail oriented while maintaining the highest standards of execution.
The Propellant Loading Engineer will lead a team of technicians through satellite battery charging, propellant loading, post-load testing, and securing operations. The propellant loading system commodities consist of cryogenic liquid Nitrogen and high-pressure gaseous Argon and Krypton; experience with cryogenic and/or high-pressure fluids systems preferred, especially in spaceflight/launch operations settings.
The Engineer performs satellite load and system test per propulsion and satellite requirements, authors and updates operational procedures, implements process controls, and supports continuous improvement. The Engineer will initiate and disposition nonconformances when they arise, working closely with design, manufacturing, and quality teams as required to execute and resolve issues.
The ideal candidate is comfortable in a highly technical and collaborative setting and is able to interpret technical requirements and turn them into actionable steps.
Key job responsibilities
• Maintaining satellite processing flow through satellite propellant loading on second shift
• Continuously improving propellant loading and test processes
• Evaluating and improving takt time
• Authoring and implementing work instructions and standard processes
• Resolving anomalies/nonconformances and implementing corrective actions
• Responsible for maintenance and calibration of propellant loading components and tooling
• Primarily on second shift, 3pm - 11:30pm Monday-Friday, with first/split-shift work required for first several months for training
• Off-shift and weekend work may be required depending on production/launch schedules
• Domestic or international travel may be required as business needs demand
A day in the life
The propellant loading engineer will spend the majority of their shift on the cleanroom floor leading a team of technicians through satellite propellant loading operations and ground system maintenance. They will take-over from the first-shift team and work with other engineering/quality teams to maintain processing flow of satellites through prop-load, disposition and address nonconformances, investigate root cause of failures and issues, and implement production control/optimization strategies. They will implement propulsion engineering best practices in a safe and repeatable manner, implement efficiency improvements, and reduce nonconformances.
About the team
The Propellant Loading Team is part of the Satellite Processing Zone at Project Kuiper's Payload Processing Facilities. The SAT Zone is responsible for receiving, testing, and processing each satellite from the factory in WA.
The Prop Load team's mission is to safely, consistently, and efficiently load propellant on all 3,236 satellites that will be launched to populate the Project Kuiper constellation.
The team is based at the Comet PPF in Kennedy Space Center, and travels to support propulsion operations at other PPFs as the launch manifest requires.
