When it comes to billionaire space rivalries, few beat those between Elon Musk's SpaceX ($PRIVATE:SPACEX) and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin ($PRIVATE:BLUEORIGIN). As the two private space companies race to the moon, Mars, and government contracts, they're also keenly aware of one another. Just last week, Elon Musk poked fun at Bezos after Blue Origin unveiled its Blue Moon lunar lander.
"Oh, stop teasing, Jeff ;)" Musk prodded in a tweet that linked to a New York Times story about the unveiling. The included photo was doctored to say "Blue Balls" in a jab that, while clearly for fun, shows that Musk is quite aware of the growing competition between the two companies and men.
Comparing Blue Origin and SpaceX is tough, as they are on somewhat different paths, but one clear comparison we can make is via hiring data. After all, a hiring company is a healthy company.
And when it comes to Blue Origin and SpaceX, the former is now hiring more than the latter for the first time in some time.
While both companies are in the throes of their own hiring sprees — SpaceX job openings up almost twofold since February and Blue Origin up more than 25% in the same timeframe — when compared opening-for-opening, Blue Origin hiring is now outpacing that of SpaceX.
This wasn't always the case. Until January 2019, SpaceX had been outpacing hiring at Blue Origin. A lull in open positions in early 2019, however, shows it fall behind as Blue Origin kept the job openings consistent.
The majority of hiring at Blue Origin is taking place at its 260,000-square-foot facility in Kent, Washington facility.
|
Location Text |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
Kent, Washington |
429 |
|
Merritt Island, Florida |
37 |
|
Van Horn, Texas |
11 |
|
Huntsville |
10 |
|
Kent, Washington, |
10 |
|
Marshall, |
1 |
As of March, the most-in-demand jobs at Blue Origin were for its New Glenn reusable launch vehicle that the company says will "build the road to space" followed by its Blue Engines group where Blue Origin is working on its BE-4, an "operationally reusable rocket" for soft landings.
|
Category |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
New Glenn |
100 |
|
Blue Engines |
67 |
|
Integrated Supply Chain |
41 |
|
not set |
40 |
|
New Shepard |
38 |
|
Test and Flight Operations |
28 |
|
Advanced Development Programs |
21 |
|
Engineering Center of Excellence |
20 |
|
Enterprise Technology |
15 |
|
Finance and Accounting |
14 |
|
Safety and Mission Assurance |
12 |
|
Security and Facilities |
9 |
|
Quality |
5 |
|
Recruiting |
4 |
|
Human Resources |
2 |
|
Production Services |
1 |
|
Executive Office |
1 |
|
Legal and Compliance |
1 |
|
Sales Marketing and Customer Experience |
1 |
Of the most in-demand titles across the nearly 500 jobs at Blue Origin, Manufacturing Engineers are the most common, followed by Integrated Test and Operations Engineers at the aforementioned New Glenn facility.
|
Title |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
Manufacturing Engineer |
4 |
|
Integrated Test and Operations Engineer - New Glenn |
3 |
|
Machinist |
3 |
|
CNC Programmer |
3 |
|
NPI and Production Program Manager - Avionics and Electronic Systems |
3 |
|
Structural Design Engineer - New Glenn |
3 |
|
Embedded Software Platform Engineer |
2 |
|
Engine CFD Analyst |
2 |
|
Launch Vehicle Test Engineer |
2 |
|
New Glenn Verification, Certification, Regulation Engineer |
2 |
It's likely that these hiring trends will change over time at the two companies as they race to space and beyond. But, for now, Bezos has a slight lead, at least in terms of creating jobs.
