Principal Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Development Engineer
About The Position
Varda is developing commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates its W-Series vehicles in-house, including payloads, capsules, heat shields, and satellite buses. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC, and Huntsville, Alabama. As a Principal Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Engineer, you will architect and design flight-critical electrical hardware for satellite buses, reentry vehicles, and customer payloads, including flight computers, satellite power systems, and sensors. You will define subsystem requirements from mission and company objectives, design hardware to meet those requirements, and ensure manufactured systems conform to them. The role also includes defining safe operating criteria and supporting mission operations in evaluating risks when hardware operates near those limits. The position covers electronics design throughout the product lifecycle, avionics architecture, environmental qualification and acceptance testing, system-level integration testing, and failure analysis. You will collaborate across engineering and operations teams and mentor junior engineers. The role is on-site in El Segundo, California. The stated 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 be U.S. persons authorized to access export-controlled technology.
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, including high-speed signal integrity, power and grounding, and electromagnetic compatibility.
- Experience taking complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly.
- Expertise with 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 for multiple onboard and over-harness communication protocols, such as SPI, RS422, and 1000BASE-T.
- Experience designing analog and digital filters 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 be a U.S. person authorized to access export-controlled items.
Nice To Haves
- Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills.
- Strong supporting knowledge of physics, mathematics, and chemistry fundamentals for designing electronics for 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 upgrades to existing hardware.
- 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 evaluate vehicle-wide 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 for system-level integration test plans that verify hardware at the vehicle level.
- Perform root cause analysis on test failures and implement comprehensive mitigation strategies for flight risks.
- Mentor junior engineers on projects, challenges, and design methodologies.
Benefits
- Long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
