Head of Electrical & Avionics Engineering

Portal Space Systems•Bothell, WA

7d•Onsite

About The Position

Portal Space Systems is seeking a Head of Electrical & Avionics Engineering to lead the spacecraft electrical and avionics function. This role will be responsible for electrical architecture, power generation and distribution, RF/communications hardware, sensors, actuators, board-level electronics, avionics interfaces, and EMI/EMC. The Head of Electrical & Avionics Engineering will serve as the authority for these areas as Portal scales, working closely with various engineering teams to ensure designs meet vehicle-level requirements and support integration, verification, and mission closure. The position involves defining architecture, leading technical decisions, establishing design standards, and supporting verification, integration, and test activities. Additionally, the role includes building and managing the Electrical & Avionics team, defining priorities, hiring, coaching, and developing engineers, and creating the necessary functional infrastructure for a fast-moving startup.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience.
Experience leading electrical, avionics, or hardware engineering for spacecraft, launch vehicles, satellites, aircraft, robotics, defense systems, or other complex embedded hardware systems.
Experience owning or contributing to system-level electrical architecture, including power distribution, avionics hardware, sensors, actuators, RF/communications, boards, harnessing, and electrical interfaces.
Experience designing, reviewing, releasing, integrating, and testing board-level electronics or avionics hardware.
Experience hiring and managing engineers, technical leads, or cross-functional hardware teams.
Ability to define and communicate spacecraft electrical and avionics architecture across power, RF, boards, sensors, actuators, harnessing, and embedded hardware interfaces.
Strong technical judgment in electrical design trades, power budgeting, signal integrity, grounding/bonding, EMI/EMC, component selection, board design, and hardware integration.
Ability to lead technical reviews and make clear decisions under schedule pressure while maintaining strong cross-functional collaboration with other engineering teams, Chief Engineers, and Program leadership.
Ability to translate vehicle-level requirements into actionable electrical designs, interface definitions, verification plans, and test approaches.
Ability to mentor engineers, set priorities, resolve technical conflicts, and maintain accountability for team output.
Clear written and verbal communication for design reviews, anomaly investigations, test readiness reviews, and executive/program-level technical discussions.

Nice To Haves

Experience with electrical integration, hardware bring-up, system test, environmental test, EMI/EMC troubleshooting, or hardware/software integration.
Experience working across Systems Engineering, mechanical design, software, GNC, test, manufacturing/build, and program leadership.
Familiarity with spacecraft or aerospace development practices, including requirements flowdown, ICDs, design reviews, qualification/acceptance testing, and configuration-controlled hardware release.

Responsibilities

Own spacecraft electrical and avionics architecture across vehicle programs, including power generation, energy storage interfaces, power distribution, command/data interfaces, RF/communications hardware, sensors, actuators, and avionics control interfaces.
Define electrical architecture trades in partnership with Chief Engineers, Systems Engineering, Software/GNC/Autonomy, Flight Dynamics, Propulsion, and Vehicle Design.
Own technical decisions for avionics hardware architecture, power management, board-level design, RF/communications interfaces, harnessing, and electrical integration boundaries.
Establish electrical design standards, interface expectations, grounding/bonding approaches, EMI/EMC design practices, electrical margin philosophy, and hardware review expectations.
Ensure avionics and electrical designs are compatible with vehicle-level configuration, integration flow, environmental test, acceptance test, and launch operations.
Lead technical ownership of spacecraft EPS and power generation systems, including power budgets, distribution architecture, load management, battery/energy storage interfaces, and power behavior during mission-critical operations.
Own RF and TT&C electrical hardware interfaces in coordination with Systems Engineering, Software/GNC/Autonomy, Flight Dynamics, and mission/customer stakeholders.
Lead board design ownership, including schematics, layout coordination, component selection, bring-up, firmware-adjacent hardware interfaces, and production release support.
Own sensor and actuator electrical interfaces, including signal integrity, compatibility with flight software and GNC needs, integration constraints, and verification approach.
Define and mature harnessing, connector, grounding, shielding, and avionics enclosure requirements in partnership with Vehicle Design and Systems Integration & Test.
Partner with Systems Engineering to define electrical and avionics verification methods, interface control documentation, test coverage, and requirement closure logic.
Partner with Systems Integration & Test on flatsat, HITL, EGSE, hardware/software/mechanical bring-up, interface checkouts, integrated debug, and cross-functional defect triage.
Own electrical readiness for vehicle-level integration, power-on testing, board bring-up, RF checkout, harness continuity, electrical functional test, and EMI/EMC-related troubleshooting.
Support anomaly investigations, nonconformance disposition, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions involving avionics hardware, power systems, RF, sensors, actuators, harnessing, or electrical interfaces.
Ensure electrical and avionics work products are released, reviewed, and controlled in a way that supports program configuration and Chief Engineer closure.
Build and manage the Electrical & Avionics team, including hardware architecture, power management, board design, RF/communications, harness/interface ownership, and hardware integration support.
Define team priorities, staffing plans, review cadences, technical standards, and execution rhythms consistent with Portal’s flat functional organization.
Hire, manage, coach, and develop electrical and avionics engineers while maintaining clear ownership of technical quality, execution, and staffing.
Create the functional infrastructure needed for a fast-moving spacecraft startup: design reviews, release standards, component selection practices, test readiness criteria, bring-up checklists, and lessons-learned loops.
Coordinate with other functional leaders to stay ahead of engineering challenges and drive a culture of proactive collaboration.