Principal Space Avionics Hardware Development Engineer

Varda Space Industries•El Segundo, CA

1d•$181,913 - $262,763•Onsite

About The Position

As a Principal Space Avionics Hardware Engineer at Varda, you will architect and design flight-critical electrical hardware for satellite buses, reentry vehicles, and customer payloads. Examples include flight computers, satellite power systems, and sensors used for navigation and pharmaceutical manufacturing monitoring. You will define subsystem requirements based on mission and company objectives, design to those requirements, and ensure manufactured systems meet them. You will also establish safe operating criteria for the hardware and support mission operations teams in assessing risks when operating near those limits. The role covers the full electronics hardware lifecycle, from design and development through testing, production, and deployment. You will contribute to avionics architecture, lead qualification and acceptance testing for space environments, guide system-level integration testing, and investigate test failures to develop mitigations for flight risks. You will serve as a hardware subject matter expert and collaborate with cross-functional teams, while mentoring junior engineers. Varda emphasizes testing components beyond expected flight conditions and thoroughly investigating failures. This role is on-site in El Segundo, California. The salary range is $181,913–$262,763 per year, with eligibility for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards. Applicants must meet the stated U.S. person requirements for access to export-controlled items.

Requirements

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 8 years of direct electronics hardware design experience, including schematic capture, PCB layout, board bring-up, and environmental qualification, in aerospace, automotive, or another high-reliability industry.
At least 3 years of experience working directly on hardware for space applications.
Demonstrated experience owning the architecture and implementation of complex electronics systems from design through production or deployment.
Advanced PCB design expertise and knowledge of high-speed signal integrity, power and grounding, and electromagnetic compatibility.
Experience taking complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly.
Expertise using Altium and/or KiCad EDA suites.
Strong hands-on laboratory experience with electronic test equipment, including oscilloscopes, function generators, benchtop digital multimeters, and power supplies.
Experience programming in Python, MATLAB, or another scripting or data-analysis language.
Demonstrated experience implementing hardware layers for multiple onboard and over-harness communication protocols, such as SPI, RS422, and 1000BASE-T.
Experience designing analog and digital filtering and mixed-signal circuits.
Power electronics design experience, including load switches and switch-mode DC:DC converters.
Understanding of aerospace sensor and actuator technologies, including RTDs, pressure transducers, brushless motors, solenoid valves, thermocouples, stepper motors, and rotary or linear encoders.
Must meet the stated U.S. person eligibility requirements for access to export-controlled items.

Nice To Haves

Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills.
Strong supporting general knowledge of physics, mathematics, and chemistry fundamentals for designing electronics that experience unique environments.

Responsibilities

Design PCB-level electronics through all lifecycle stages, including schematic capture, layout, design validation, fabrication and assembly, and manufacturing test.
Contribute to avionics architecture and system design for next-generation vehicles and hardware block upgrades to existing vehicles.
Help define electrical engineering standards, processes, and procedures.
Translate company and mission objectives into subsystem requirements, designs, and development milestones.
Serve as an avionics subject matter expert for satellite, reentry vehicle, and payload hardware, supporting the GNC, pharmaceutical, mission operations, and integration teams.
Collaborate with flight software, thermal, GNC, structures, and other cross-functional teams to assess vehicle-level impacts of design decisions.
Own product acceptance and qualification testing for space environments, including thermal, vibration, shock, TVAC, and EMI testing, with support from the Avionics Test team.
Provide direction on system-level integration test plans to verify hardware performance at the vehicle level.
Perform root cause analysis on test failures and implement holistic mitigations for flight risks.
Mentor junior engineers on projects, challenges, and design methodologies.