Materials and processes
Space Jobs for Materials Engineers
, SpaceJobs.Now lists 109 open roles for materials engineers and chemists on 26 space industry employers, including Turion Space, E-Space and Inversion Space; typical pay across them is $130k to $226k a year (median $153k), topped by $252k a year advertised at Stoke Space.
Chemical Propulsion Systems Engineer II (opens the job details)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · Propulsion · JPL Campus, United States of America· 3d agoDetails
$118,872–$143,000/yr
Measured from 42 distinct posted rates, across 16 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 67 of the 109 listings open here post no pay at all.
Space companies hire materials engineers and chemists to choose, qualify and test the metals, composites and chemicals their vehicles are made of and run on. Each listing here is re-verified on the employer's own job board once an hour.
Live roles for materials engineers and chemists
Updated 30 Oct 2026, 09:18 UTCListed here: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory roles. See every employer
Chemistry and propellants
1 openPropellants, cleanliness and contamination control, and the chemistry of materials that fly.
Chemical Propulsion Systems Engineer II (opens the job details)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · Propulsion · JPL Campus, United States of America· 3d agoDetails
$118,872–$143,000/yr
Before you apply
Space hardware is built, tested and flown in person, so many roles name a factory, a test site, a launch site or a control room, and each listing states its location. US roles that touch export-controlled technology (ITAR or EAR) can ask that you be a U.S. person, and some ask for a security clearance. A real employer never charges you to apply, never interviews you only by chat app and never asks you to buy equipment.
Pay by specialty
Every specialty gets its typical band from its own open roles, computed by the same method as the rest of the site (the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top). A specialty is listed once three or more distinct rates have been posted.
What the roles ask for
Drawn from the requirement lines of 80 out of 109 open roles for materials engineers and chemists, the same lines each role's pop-up quotes from its posting. Each role is counted once, at the lowest degree it will accept.
- Name years of experience66
- Set a residency or work-authorization condition13
- Name u.S. person status (ITAR or EAR)9
- Name a security clearance3
- Ask for a professional license1
- Ask for a certification1
Where a posting states years of experience, the median ask is 5 years.
Who hires materials engineers and chemists in the space industry
Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.
Where these roles are posted
The US states with the most open roles for materials engineers and chemists, and the roles posted for a single country. A place name leads to its own page, and a country's count lists the matching roles.
In the US, by state
Space industry jobs by US state
The public record, in every industry: 23,800 materials engineers work in the US (2025), projected to grow 8% by 2035, at a median $113k/yr (BLS, May 2025). Each state's page gives its own.
Roles posted for one country
What our research measures about mechanical work
Read from the open postings on 2026-10-29 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.
- Who is hiring793 open roles (9.7% of the space roles we read) at 37 employers, 154 of them posted in the last 30 days.
- Where the jobs are4.9% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
- Who can apply78.6% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 13.7% name a security clearance.
- Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Finite element analysis (46%), Ansys (38%) and GD&T (ASME Y14.5) (36%).
- Degrees and experience1.3% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 32.9% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 5 years of experience at the least.
- Pay transparency42.1% of the postings state their pay, at a median $132,000 a year.
- Internships and entry level77 open roles are for someone starting out (9.7% of its open roles).
- Shifts, weekends and travel19.4% of the postings ask for weekend work, 15.3% for overtime or extended hours, and 0.9% name an evening, night or rotating shift.
- What applications askThe application forms for this work ask your citizenship or U.S. person status (88.8% of them), about a security clearance (42.4% of them), your GPA (26.8% of them), SAT, ACT or GRE scores (24.3% of them), your salary expectations (31.4% of them) and whether you have worked or interviewed at the company before (36.5% of them).
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Frequently asked questions
How much do materials engineers and chemists earn in the space industry?
Going by the 42 distinct salaries currently posted for roles for materials engineers and chemists (each put on a full-time year), the typical range is $130k–$226k/yr and the median is $153k/yr. The top posted figure is $252k/yr, at Stoke Space. 67 of the 109 open roles for materials engineers and chemists state no pay, so check each listing.
What degree do materials roles ask for?
Usually a degree in materials science, metallurgy, chemical engineering or chemistry, and for senior roles a master's or PhD. Each listing states the degree, the experience and the location it asks for. Of the 80 open roles for materials engineers and chemists whose requirements we read, 2 a master's, 73 at least a bachelor's and 5 name no degree.
What does a materials engineer or chemist do at a space company?
A materials engineer at a space company decides what a part is made of and how it is made, then proves it: testing alloys and composites, writing the process specifications for heat treating, bonding and coating, and finding the cause when a part fails.
How do space companies hire materials engineers and chemists?
Each employer runs its own hiring, and each listing says what it asks for: the degree or the hands-on experience, the location, and for export-controlled work in the US, often U.S. person status.
Are these jobs real?
Every role here is read from a space employer's own careers page or job board (Turion Space, E-Space, Inversion Space and Xona Space Systems among them), and each employer's page here covers who they are and how they hire. A real employer never charges you to apply, never asks you to buy equipment and never interviews you only by chat app.
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