Flight Telecom Systems Engineer II

JPL/NASA • Pasadena, CA

1d • $114,192 - $134,160 • Onsite

About The Position

The Flight Communications & Tracking Section at JPL is seeking a Flight Telecom Systems Engineer II for its Communication System Engineering and Operations Group. The role supports flight telecommunications subsystems for deep-space interplanetary and Earth-orbiting missions, as well as lunar and Mars relay networks. The engineer contributes across the product lifecycle, from early concepts, mission formulation, specification and prototyping through engineering and flight-model development, implementation, functional and environmental testing, and flight operations. Work is performed on complex and varied telecom engineering tasks in partnership with senior engineers, with general guidance and opportunities to develop toward technical leadership.

The position combines telecom system design and analysis, requirements and interface development, hardware and software testing, verification and validation, technical documentation, proposal and concept-study support, integration and readiness reviews, and coordination with spacecraft teams and ground-station providers. It also includes real-time mission operations support: monitoring subsystem health, performance, and link status; assisting with station pass planning and execution; assessing telemetry; responding to anomalies; and developing operational procedures and analysis tools. The position is based in JPL’s campus-like environment in Pasadena, California. Domestic and international travel for testing and mission support must be supported.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Hardware Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or Mathematics with at least 3 years of related work experience; or a master’s degree in a similar technical discipline with at least 1 year of related experience; or a Ph.D. in a similar technical discipline with at least 0 years of related experience.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to collaborate across a technical team and build trust with peers and senior engineers.
• Initiative and ownership, with a record of following through on responsibilities with minimal oversight.
• Emerging leadership qualities, such as informally mentoring peers or interns, taking initiative on team tasks, or helping onboard others, and an interest in progressing toward a technical leadership role.
• Sound judgment and reliability demonstrated through increasing responsibility in prior roles or academic/research work.
• Willingness to learn, receive feedback, and develop professionally in a fast-paced, team-oriented engineering environment.
• Ability to work independently on assigned tasks under general guidance, select appropriate methods, and escalate significant risks or roadblocks.
• Ability to analyze complex technical factors and apply engineering judgment to resolve significant problems within assigned scope.
• Creativity and innovative thinking in addressing important technical issues.
• Ability to collaborate with groups, sections, divisions, and organizations inside and outside JPL.
• Flexibility to respond to frequent plan changes and work effectively in a rapid-paced concurrent engineering environment.
• Experience designing, implementing, and testing electronic hardware for complex spaceflight systems.
• Proficiency in Python, Jupyter Notebook, and MATLAB for system analysis and automation.
• Strong background in RF systems, software-defined radios, digital and analog hardware design, and embedded software or firmware.
• Hands-on experience with RF test equipment, including spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, noise figure meters, and bit error rate testers.
• Hands-on systems testing experience, including test planning, procedure development, data analysis, and the ability to understand, debug, and troubleshoot complex systems.
• Experience on a multidisciplinary systems-engineering or test team, such as telecom, radar, spacecraft, avionics, electrical integration, spacecraft assembly electrical, spacecraft functional, or telecom compatibility.
• Experience designing telecom subsystems for space applications, managing link budgets, and reducing link uncertainties.
• Knowledge of processes used to verify and validate system design requirements.
• Ability to support domestic and international travel for testing and mission support.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of Laboratory and NASA policies and procedures, and government regulations across a range of applications.
• Direct experience with flight telecom component development and delivery.
• Understanding of advanced telecommunications principles and techniques, including modulation and coding, antennas and front-end RF hardware, link design and modeling, networking hardware and protocols, radio testing, and test automation.
• Experience with Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, C-matrix, and Events (SPICE) kernels and toolkit for spacecraft trajectory modeling in telecom link analysis.
• Proficiency with tools for numerical analysis, electronic design, firmware, embedded software, or testing automation.
• Familiarity with requirements tracking and management systems such as Jama.
• Experience estimating costs for spacecraft components and subsystems.
• Familiarity with ground-station providers and services, including DSN, NSN, ESTRACK, and commercial providers such as KSAT.
• Experience with spectral-mask regulations and measurement techniques.
• Experience with multipath and ray-tracing analyses for base-station-to-rover communication links.
• Experience developing, documenting, and executing radio-system tests, including formal validation and verification tracking for requirement fulfillment.
• Experience designing and testing software-defined radios (SDRs).

Responsibilities

• Provide telecom systems engineering support for flight telecom subsystems used on deep-space interplanetary, Earth-orbiting, lunar, and Mars relay missions.
• Collaborate with teammates and subsystem engineers, share knowledge, support a positive and safety-conscious team culture, and communicate task progress, risks, and recommendations to senior engineers and task leads.
• Participate in technical reviews and team discussions, applying engineering judgment and contributing to technical decisions.
• Generate telecom component- and subsystem-level requirements and flow requirements down to meet project and flight-system needs.
• Develop interface agreements between the telecom subsystem and other spacecraft subsystems.
• Conduct system-level link analyses using statistically derived link parameters.
• Evaluate telecom components, algorithms, subsystems, and end-to-end system performance with other engineers.
• Conduct software simulations and hardware tests, and summarize results to verify telecom system functionality.
• Contribute concepts and ideas to improve existing telecom products and technologies.
• Present analyses and technical results at peer-level design and technical reviews.
• Contribute technical content, data, and graphics to proposals and Concept Study Reports (CSRs).
• Serve as a telecom subject matter expert on concept development teams, helping devise, validate, and benchmark approaches to technical challenges.
• Track and document mass, power, and data-volume specifications and allocations for assigned telecom components under senior-engineer guidance.
• Perform or independently review reliability analyses, including worst-case, parts-stress, radiation, thermal, and structural analyses, and interface failure-mode analyses.
• Draft or update telecom functional descriptions, communications behavior manager documents, interface control documents, requirements documents, test reports, design description documents, and other design-control documents.
• Create detailed test plans, procedures, and reports aligned with verification and validation objectives.
• Support development of V&V plans and help ensure compliance with system requirements.
• Support spacecraft-level Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO), including subsystem functional testing, ground-station compatibility testing, and environmental testing.
• Collaborate with the Deep Space Network (DSN), Near Space Network (NSN), European Space Tracking Network (ESTRACK), and commercial ground-station providers such as KSAT.
• Support mission and concept proposal teams with telecom subsystem expertise and formal proposal writing and review.
• Provide telecom support to JPL’s Team X concurrent engineering group for rapid mission-concept design, analysis, and costing.
• Support preparation and documentation of Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and waivers, and coordinate Change Control Board (CCB) reviews with senior-engineer guidance.
• Support Hardware Review/Certification Requirements (HRCR) and Certificate of Flight Readiness (CoFR) reviews for flight deliveries.
• Support the product manager in managing risks, performance error budgets, trade studies, design integration, and delivery schedules.
• Serve as a telecom operations engineer for flight missions, monitoring subsystem health, performance, and link status during launch, cruise, critical events, and extended operations.
• Support DSN, NSN, and commercial ground-station pass planning and execution, including command verification, telemetry acquisition, and assessment of link performance against pre-pass predictions.
• Participate in shift-based mission operations coverage, assess telecom telemetry during and after passes, and flag off-nominal performance for follow-up.
• Support telecom anomaly response through root-cause analysis and recommended corrective actions in coordination with the flight team.
• Develop and maintain operations products, including flight rules, standard operating procedures, contingency and anomaly-response procedures, and operations handbooks.
• Develop and implement software tools, such as Python, Jupyter, and MATLAB tools, to automate telemetry trending, limit checking, and anomaly detection.
• Build and maintain dashboards and analysis tools that compare uplink and downlink telemetry with link-budget predictions and performance models, identifying deviations for engineering follow-up.
• Capture lessons learned from flight operations and incorporate them into updated procedures, tools, and training materials.

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision, wellbeing, and retirement plans.
• Paid time off.
• Learning opportunities.
• Rideshare benefits.
• Childcare benefits.
• Flexible schedule.
• Parental leave.
• Additional benefits and perks; benefits-eligible positions receive benefits effective the first day of the month coincident with or immediately following the employee’s start date.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level