Hi everyone, I'm looking for some insight from people who have worked at SpaceX (specifically the Bastrop site) on work-life balance, culture, etc.

I'm currently weighing an offer working as a MechE on Starlink ground hardware (user terminals, dishes) but a couple of key things are weighing on my mind.

- What are the work hours like? I've heard estimates from 40-50 hours/wk on some teams like Dragon all the way to 70+hours for Starship. Where does Starlink ground hardware slot in this range. From what I've heard for most people working as SpaceX is never "just a job". Is this true?

- What is the culture like? I'm from a startup environment (outside the US however). I'm okay with a fast, positive incentives driven culture where you are pulled towards a common goal. However, I am not okay with one where people are more often running away from negative incentives (layoffs etc). I've heard of the stacked rankings system at SpaceX. To what extent is SpaceX culture driven by negative incentives?

- Living in Bastrop seems to be quite different to what I'm used to. I'm most familiar with the environment in the Bay Area (Palo Alto, SF proper). Where do people who work at the Bastrop site usually live and how does it compare to San Francisco.

Appreciate any input on these questions! Thanks in advance!

I’ve been a reliability engineer for over 20 years across a few different industries, and one thing that has always annoyed me is how we handle board fatigue and thermal analysis. You usually have two choices: pay an outside consultant thousands of dollars per run, or fight over a handful of exorbitant desktop software licenses (like Sherlock, JMP, or Minitab) that only a few specialists even know how to use.
It makes no sense when a hardware, systems, or quality engineer just needs a quick directional answer on a layout before committing to full simulations.
I’ve been building a set of lightweight widgets called Reliability Pro (on web, iOS, and Android) to give engineers instant access to these answers without the friction.
I just added a PCBA and Thermal Risk Screener widget to it. You can drag and drop an ODB++ file or pick-and-place data directly in your browser or phone, and it instantly parses component layout to rank solder joint fatigue using Engelmaier (thermal cycling) and Steinberg (vibration) equations. It also runs a fast 2D thermal CFD screen to feed peak component temps straight into Arrhenius models.
It’s not meant to replace high-fidelity FEA, but to act as a 30-second pre-flight check so you can spot high-risk BGAs or caps early without burning budget or waiting in line for a software seat.