Interesting Projects, No Life - Launch Engineer II SpaceX Employee Review

2.0
23 Jan 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work on exciting projects, interact with a lot of disciplines and get to learn a lot. Lots of smart people around you. Get to see some cool things. Stock bonus - depending on when you join this can be good compensation. You can only sell if company offers a buyback and you need to cover the tax for all stock awards (can be paid out of pocket or by selling some of your stock award during vesting periods).

Cons

Long hours - and they are required. 40 hour weeks do not exist. Expect to work weekends frequently and over holidays. Expect to be available on MS Teams 24/7. You will be rated down if you work 50 hours per week and while others do 60 (even if your work gets done right and on-time). There is no OT pay for salaried employees, you are expected to work more. Travel - If you are Cape or Hawthorne based and work on Starship - expect to be required to travel to Starbase frequently. If you can find a hotel that isn't dirty or full of bugs you're lucky. Your other alternative is to stay on site - sharing space with randoms or crammed in to tiny living quarters that frequently have A/C fail or run out of hot water. Schedules - Largely unrealistic and they know this, the goal is to make you feel the pressure to keep working. Bonuses - stock portion only paid out if you stay with company for next full year (awarded ~April, paid November, not including any long term options which vest over 5-6 year periods). This is the mechanism they use to try retain you. You will notice that when stocks vest (May/November) a lot of employees leave. If something goes wrong someone is getting thrown under the bus, even if management was 100% on board with the choices made - or made the choice themselves due to cost/schedule. Many managers are not technically competent in the areas they oversee - they are there to drive you to work more.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
19 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great culture, cool mission, good stock options

Cons

Long hours, isolated office, grind culture

4.0
6 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You learn so much because the work is so freaking intense, its a lot of fun if you're the type of person who loves to get emerged in hard problems. The hours for me were not too bad but I was the exception, all the other interns I was with dealt with 60-70+ hour weeks, some interns came in at 10am and left at 12am, when I say its intense, I'm not joking. This is however very unique to the Starbase location. I've heard Hawthorne is a lot more chill. I honestly despite how challenging the role was always look back on it with a sense of pride in my work, and longing to be back there. It really does feel that you're doing world changing things.

Cons

Very un diverse upper management, I'd say the company is pretty diverse in the lower ranks, but once you start to look at the org chart and see who's in charge, you realize that its mainly just white people. Makes you wonder if as a person of color you too will be able to move up. Housing sucks: there was limited housing on campus for full time employees, you have to wait a year plus to get off the queue and once you're off you only really get tiny homes as the option that are in an inconvenient location. Interns don't even have the option to get on campus housing, they give you 3k in a housing stipend and expect you to find a place in Brownsville. I'd say its very hard to maintain a relationship while working here if you don't have an understanding partner, the work schedule is brutal and you really can't slack off.

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