engineering applied scienceadditive manufacturingin space assemblymicrogravity manufacturingpayload integration
Complete evaluation framework
What to assess and how to score it
Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Technical depth
35% weight
Probe depth in microgravity process physics: Marangoni convection, containerless solidification, vacuum outgassing, and how they altered extrusion or crystal growth parameters versus terrestrial baselines.
Evidence to listen for
Explains the physics or mechanism behind their work, not just the tooling
Names the standards, tolerances, and constraints they designed against
Can defend a design decision under follow-up questions
Distinguishes what they personally engineered from what the team delivered
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot explain the fundamentals of their own stated specialism.
2
Needs Improvement
Knows the vocabulary but not the underlying mechanism; struggles under follow-ups.
3
Satisfactory
Solid working knowledge for the role; depth thins out on edge cases.
4
Very Good
Strong command of the domain; explains trade-offs and defends decisions well.
5
Excellent
Explains specific process shifts caused by absent buoyancy and settling, citing measured parameter changes on real furnace, printer, or bioreactor hardware.
02
Evaluation factor
Work that shipped
30% weight
Ask which payloads or hardware actually flew: ISS EXPRESS rack lockers, Cygnus or Dragon manifests, cubesat demonstrators, and what TRL level they reached after flight.
Evidence to listen for
Names specific programmes, parts, or systems that reached production or field use
States their own scope inside the project
Can give measured outcomes: yield, cycle time, cost, failure rate
Explains what went wrong and what they changed
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No delivered work; experience is coursework, lab-only, or purely observational.
2
Needs Improvement
Contributed to projects but cannot say what shipped or what their part was.
3
Satisfactory
Has delivered real work; outcomes described without numbers.
4
Very Good
Names shipped work and their scope, with some measured results.
5
Excellent
Names flown or flight-qualified units, launch vehicle and mission, plus post-flight sample results and design revisions driven by them.
03
Evaluation factor
Diagnosis under uncertainty
20% weight
Test how they debugged anomalies with no physical access: telemetry-only diagnosis, ground twin units, crew procedure rewrites, downmass constraints on returned samples.
Evidence to listen for
Describes a real failure they chased to root cause
Shows a method: isolate variables, reproduce, measure, eliminate
Distinguishes correlation from cause
Says what they ruled out and why, not only what the answer turned out to be
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No diagnostic method; guesses or escalates immediately.
2
Needs Improvement
Trial and error with no structure; cannot explain how they narrowed the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Reasonable method on familiar problems; less structured on novel ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic approach with a real root-cause story.
5
Excellent
Walks through an on-orbit anomaly traced from telemetry and downlinked imagery to root cause, verified on a ground engineering unit.
04
Evaluation factor
Working across the org
15% weight
Check coordination with NASA payload integration, safety review panels, crew training, ITAR-controlled suppliers, and structural or thermal analysis teams during verification milestones.
Evidence to listen for
Explains technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders without condescension
Has negotiated scope, cost, or timeline with manufacturing, product, or suppliers
Documents decisions so others can act on them
Takes review feedback without defensiveness
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot communicate outside their specialism; dismissive of other functions.
2
Needs Improvement
Communication gaps cause rework; avoids stakeholder contact.
3
Satisfactory
Works adequately with other teams; documentation is thin.
4
Very Good
Communicates clearly across functions; reliable collaborator.
5
Excellent
Describes surviving Phase safety reviews and integration hardware agreements, naming counterparts and how requirement conflicts were resolved without slipping the manifest.
Put this rubric to work
Score every candidate against the same standard
Add these weighted factors to Hirevire and let AI evaluate recorded answers against your rubric.
