PCB Designer, AI Satellites (Starmind)

SpaceX • Bastrop, TX

5h

About The Position

SpaceX is leveraging its experience deploying and operating the world’s largest satellite constellation to develop Starmind, a new constellation of satellites capturing solar energy in space to power low-cost, high-performance AI compute for Earth. Realizing this vision demands highly reliable, high performance electrical hardware ranging from power electronics, high speed digital systems, mixed signal designs, robust avionics, networking, and custom compute electronics. These systems must operate in the extreme environment of space while delivering the connectivity, control, power distribution, and processing needed for orbital AI inference. As we continue to upgrade and expand the constellation, we’re looking for best-in-class engineers to join the team. The Starmind team designs, builds, and operates the orbital compute fabric of the future. We develop nearly every key piece of technology in house – from the satellites’ flight computers and power systems to the fully custom compute electronics, memory, and networking that form the brain of our on-orbit data centers. As a PCB Designer at SpaceX, you’ll be responsible for creating the layout for all our in-house board designs. You’re not just connecting the dots. Here you’ll partner closely with Hardware Development Engineers as they develop their schematics, providing your expertise and recommendations at each design review, and iterating your designs to come up with the best possible solutions. You’ll contribute to a variety of design mixes from radio phased arrays to solar power converters and more.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and 1+ years of professional experience with PCB layout OR 3+ years of professional experience with PCB layout in lieu of a degree (internships and club/project work applies)

Nice To Haves

• 2+ years of experience with PCB layout and routing in one or all of the following areas: modern passive and active electronics components, surface-mount, RF components, ball-grid array and similar fine pitch, or high pin density components
• 1+ years of experience with ECAD libraries and library configuration management
• Demonstrated understanding of design for manufacturability, assembly, and test
• Experience with Mentor Xpedition and/or Altium Designer (Mentor Xpedition preferred)
• Experience with layout of mixed analog and digital designs, high speed buses, FPGA, DRAM and CPU designs, power supplies, DC-DC converters, transmission lines, impedance-controlled traces and power traces
• Experience with MIL-STD, commercial and IPC standards and design
• Experience monitoring industry-wide parts
• Ability to visualize component placement and interconnectivity
• Experience with scripting and automation
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively with others

Responsibilities

• Determine layer stackup, perform component package selection, component placement, routing feasibility studies, and signal routing of digital, analog, RF, and power conversion of printed circuit boards (PCB)
• Library creation and maintenance
• Create and release documentation for fabrication of PCBs
• Collaborate with internal teams and PCB vendors to continually improve design rules, constraints and design for test and manufacture guidelines
• Utilize PCB design tools, maintain and evaluate new tools, and train team members to use tools

What This Job Offers

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