Sr. Manager, Power Plant (Starship)

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

SENIOR MANAGER

SpaceX is building and operating combined-cycle gas turbine power plants that must come online, stay online, and perform. This role owns the design and build of the full power plant: gas turbines, mechanical and electrical balance of plant, and everything else that keeps the plant running at rated output, day after day. This is not a desk job. You will be constructing the power plant, owning commissioning in the control room during startup, and in the field troubleshooting.

• Build, lead, and develop a multi-disciplinary power plant team spanning gas turbines, mechanical and electrical balance of plant, controls, and commissioning

• Own the full lifecycle of gas turbine power generation assets — installation, commissioning, startup, operations, and long-term maintenance — and be accountable for plant availability, reliability, and performance

• Set technical direction and execution plans for commissioning, including combustion tuning, control system checkout, protective relay testing, and performance/reliability run verification

• Own root-cause analysis and corrective action for turbine trips, forced outages, and performance degradation; drive fixes that prevent recurrence and hold the team to a no-repeat standard

• Establish and continuously improve operating procedures, startup/shutdown sequences, and abnormal operating condition playbooks

• Serve as the primary technical and commercial interface with OEMs (GE, Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Power, Doosan) on warranty issues, LTSA scope, outage planning, and technical issues

• Plan, staff, and execute major/minor inspections, hot gas path outages, and combustion inspections in line with OEM maintenance intervals; own outage cost, duration, and quality of return-to-service

• Drive turbine performance analysis (heat rate, capacity factor, degradation curves) to identify efficiency losses and convert findings into funded corrective action

• Coordinate across balance-of-plant teams (HRSG, steam turbine, cooling systems, water treatment) to deliver integrated plant performance, not siloed subsystem success

• Own the construction-to-operations handoff with EPC contractors; ensure a clean transition from construction to commercial operation

• Develop and own spare parts strategy, critical spares inventory, and maintenance budgets; manage spend against reliability and availability targets

• Hire, coach, and retain engineers and technicians; set performance standards and grow the next generation of plant leadership

• Represent the power plant organization to internal stakeholders (operations, grid interconnection, commercial, construction) and make timely field decisions under pressure

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of experience working in one or more of the following; or 14+ years of experience working utility-scale gas turbines in commissioning, operations, maintenance, or plant engineering roles

• 2+ years of project management experience leading operations

• Working knowledge of combined-cycle plant systems: gas turbines, HRSGs, steam turbines, generators, and balance-of-plant equipment

• Experience reading and interpreting P&IDs, single-line diagrams, and turbine control logic

• Direct commissioning or operations leadership experience with GE 7/9HA, Siemens Energy SGT6/8-8000H, Mitsubishi M501/701JAC, or Doosan