(click pic to enlarge) Stratolaunch Rendering of the Scaled mothership & SpaceX rocket
Highly qualified engineers are encouraged to consider a career
at Scaled Composites as the future is looking very, very big!
The recent announcement by Paul Allen of the Stratolaunch Systems space venture that includes both Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites (along with SpaceX and Dynetics) got me thinking right away about how involved Burt would be. He's retired now and moved away from Mojave, so I wondered to what extent he'd be directly involved. So, I sent him an email and simply asked "are you directly involved in the design and engineering of the mega mothership or is that task completely handed over to Scaled?" I was fortunate to get a response directly from Burt, which reads: "Over the past 20 years I have conducted preliminary designs of various mega-mother ships as in-house research and for various prospective customers. As the program moved into a real, funded phase to build the beast, I handed off the design effort to the young engineers at Scaled. I am retired now and my work will be limited to being a Stratolaunch Board member and giving occasional advise."
That's pretty much what I had expected to hear... I don't think any of us expected him to be sitting in a rocking chair on the porch in his retirement, but being directly involved in day to day hardcore engineering challenges on a project of this size didn't seem realistic either. You may already know that WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership for Virgin Galactic is an aircraft that Burt pointed out long ago as being designed by the young engineers at Scaled. The mantle has truly been passed, and Scaled is embarking on some new and very large territory with a project like the Stratolaunch million-pound-plus Mega Mothership.
(click pic to enlarge) Wow! The Stratolaunch Mega Mothership is huge compared to a 747!
My friend and Scaled employee Elliot Seguin shared with me that Scaled is in the market for new and big-minded engineers. The 1.2 million pound plus Stratolaunch Mega Mothership project may be poised to bring in as many as 30 engineers soon, and as it progresses, more engineers will likely be added. It's an incredibly exciting time to be thinking seriously about trying to get a job at Scaled.
But what kind of people work at Scaled? They aren't your ordinary engineers to be sure. The work environment at Scaled is light on managers and heavy on very motivated self-starters that not only need experience in the design-build-test loop, but that's how the work is done. Many of the engineers are also young... not that's there's a bias against older highly experienced people, but packing everything up and moving out into the desert simply isn't as easy for established families. But one thing is sure, there isn't much hand-holding in the Scaled work atmosphere, so you better be good at balancing being a team player while also being that highly motivated self-starter.
If you're and experienced engineer, or maybe a year or two out of school with some great hands-on experience, I encourage you to check into the careers page at Scaled. You've got nothing to lose by checking in to it, and you've got so much potentially to gain by getting involved in one of the greatest engineering work environments on the planet.
Lastly, if you're still in high school and are leaning toward (or are already committed to) getting an engineering degree, keeping Scaled Composites on your radar may really help drive you forward. Their need in the future for more of these unique engineers is likely to continue to grow. This would be a great time to cultivate your own experience in the design-build-test loop... and it's always a good time to become a dedicated self-starter!
Monday, December 19, 2011 at 08:24AM 
The freshly painted, and brand new, Air New Zealand 777 is really really black!
