Electrical Engineer

Xona Space Systems•Burlingame, CA

8h•$140,000 - $185,000

About The Position

Xona is a navigational intelligence company developing Pulsar, a Low Earth Orbit satellite infrastructure designed to provide precise, resilient global positioning. The Electrical Engineer will join the satellite development team to design, develop, and integrate electrical systems that power and control spacecraft propulsion systems, working with engineers across subsystems from concept through flight. This is a hands-on, collaborative role leading electrical hardware design, laboratory testing, and debugging across low- to high-voltage subsystems. The work includes embedded microcontroller hardware, power-tree design, precision sensor acquisition, valve drivers, and dedicated DC/DC converters. The engineer will work alongside firmware and power electronics engineers and collaborate with propulsion and avionics teams to ensure reliable hardware for harsh space environments.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
At least 2 years of experience taking mixed-signal designs from schematics through manufacturing and laboratory bring-up.
Familiarity with electrical design and simulation tools such as Altium, KiCad, or SPICE.
Fundamental understanding of mixed-signal electronics, power-tree design, power conversion, signal integrity, and hardware reliability in harsh space environments.
Hands-on experience designing embedded microcontroller hardware and peripheral interfaces such as CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, and RS-422.
Experience designing driver circuits for inductive loads, including valves and solenoids, and closed-loop DC/DC converters.
Strong background in precision sensor acquisition and analog signal conditioning, including op-amps, filtering, and ADC/DAC interfacing.
Hands-on experience with electrical testing and debugging using equipment such as oscilloscopes, dynamic loads, and power meters, as well as Python test scripting.

Nice To Haves

High-voltage power electronics experience.
Exposure to satellite systems, avionics, or electrical power systems.
Experience with space environmental testing, such as TVAC, vibration, and EMI/EMC testing per MIL-STD-461, and component derating standards such as NASA EEE-INST-002.
Experience developing hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulators.
Familiarity with reading embedded C/C++ to collaborate with firmware engineers during low-level driver bring-up and boundary-scan debugging.

Responsibilities

Design and develop electrical subsystems for propulsion electronics, including embedded microcontroller hardware, sensor interfaces, valve drivers, and power conversion.
Lead schematic capture and multilayer PCB layout from breadboard prototypes through flight hardware.
Design, tune, and validate DC/DC converters and driver stages for inductive and resistive loads.
Implement precision analog front ends for telemetry, including current sensing, pressure transducers, and temperature monitoring.
Coordinate hardware/firmware interfaces, peripheral pin mappings, register maps, and communication protocols with embedded firmware engineers.
Conduct hardware design and layout reviews, and support component sourcing while ensuring compliance with standards and derating guidelines.
Develop and execute electrical test plans from breadboard through flight hardware, including Python scripts for test automation and data logging.
Troubleshoot and debug electrical systems in a laboratory using equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, electronic dynamic loads, and power meters.
Develop electrical interface documentation and test procedures for spacecraft subsystems.
Support assembly, integration, and test activities, including environmental testing such as TVAC, vibration, and EMI/EMC.