There are few things we love seeing more than hiring sprees at Elon Musk's private space company, SpaceX ($PRIVATE:SPACEX). That's because the company that is privatizing getting humans to space stations and Mars and launching a low-orbit broadband satellite network is pushing space exploration — and technology — forward in quantum leaps.

In this case, we've observed a sustained hiring spree at SpaceX dating back to early 2019. At that time, job openings dropped to just 143 as the company shuttered several projects in order to move onto others. It seems the latter is happening now, as openings have soared to 372, an increase of 160%.

By looking at which job categories have moved up the ranks since January, we can see that "Vehicle Engineering" has seen major growth in terms of job listings at SpaceX's careers site, and is now second only to Production.

In Vehicle Engineering alone, openings have moved from a low of 17 in January to 72 this week — an increase of 324%. The 72 job titles are extremely diverse with very little redundancy. Only "Antenna Engineer", "FPGA/ASIC Verification Engineer", "Supervisor, Tank Fabrication", "Tank Fabricator/Welder - Temporary", and "Build Engineer (Starship)" had more than one iteration.

For serious space nerds, the full list of Vehicle Engineering openings as of August 10 is listed below in its entirety:

Title

Ticker Symbol (Count)

Antenna Engineer

2

FPGA/ASIC Verification Engineer

2

Supervisor, Tank Fabrication

2

Tank Fabricator/Welder - Temporary

2

Build Engineer (Starship)

2

Deburr Technician (Valves Factory Machining Center)

1

Launch Logistics Specialist (2nd Shift)

1

Manufacturing Specialist

1

Mechanical Designer (Starlink)

1

CNC R&D Machinist

1

Avionics Hardware Test Engineer (Starlink)

1

Network Engineer (Starlink)

1

Build Specialist - Temporary

1

PCB Designer

1

Power Electronics Engineer

1

Production Manager (Thermal Protection Systems)

1

Aerodynamics Engineer

1

Propulsion Components Engineering Leadership Development Program

1

Production Coordinator (User Terminal)

1

Dragon 2 Mechanical Engineer

1

Power Engineer

1

Propulsion Components Manufacturing Engineer

1

Manufacturing Development Engineer (Starlink User Terminal)

1

Propulsion Engineer (Thermal & Fluid Analysis)

1

RF/Microwave Engineer

1

Sr. Hardware Development Electrical Engineer

1

Hardware Development Electrical Engineer

1

Dragon Life Support Systems Engineer

1

Sr. Hardware Development Engineer (User Terminal)

1

Sr. Wireless Protocol Software Engineer

1

GNC Satellite Attitude Determination & Control Engineer

1

Machining Process Engineer

1

Falcon Engineer

1

Mechanical Engineer (Vehicle Development)

1

GNC Engineer (Starship)

1

Technical Project Lead (Payload)

1

Dragon Integration and Test Engineer

1

Sheet Metal Technician (Starship)

1

Build Engineer, Optics

1

Broadband Communications Integration Engineer

1

Propulsion Test Technician (2nd shift)

1

Thermal Development Technician

1

Logistics Technician - Temporary

1

Test Development Technician

1

Lead CNC Machinist

1

Hardware Development Electrical Engineer (Antenna)

1

Thermal Engineer

1

Compliance Engineer

1

Propulsion Components Technician

1

Vehicle Integration Technician (Starship) - Temporary

1

Sr. Hardware Development Engineer (Laser Communications Design)

1

CNC Programmer

1

Hardware Development Engineer (User Terminal)

1

Dragon 2 Heat Shield Design Engineer

1

Starlink Fleet Planning and Operations Engineer

1

Tube Bender (Starship) - Temporary

1

Vehicle Integration Technician - Temporary

1

CNC Lathe Machinist

1

Sr. Hardware Development Engineer (Phased Array Systems)

1

NDE Level II Technician - Phased Array Ultrasonic Inspection (PAUT)

1

Sr. RF/Microwave Engineer

1

Dragon 2 Heat Shield Build Engineer

1

Dynamics Engineer

1

Sr. Power Electronics Engineer

1

Wireless Protocol Software Engineer

1

RF and Modem Integration Engineer

1

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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