Radiation Engineer — Spacecraft & Payloads - TeraWave

BLUE ORIGIN•Los Angeles, WA

1d•$144,179 - $219,522•Onsite

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! Blue Origin is pioneering the future of space-based communications with TeraWave, a revolutionary satellite communications network designed to deliver symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth. This multi-orbit constellation will consist of optically interconnected satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO), providing enterprise-grade connectivity for critical operations worldwide. TeraWave combines LEO and MEO spacecraft, high-throughput RF payloads, optical inter-satellite links, propulsion power electronics, and high-performance avionics. The resulting radiation assurance problem spans mission environments, shielding and layout, EEE part susceptibility, solar-array degradation, materials effects, and fleet-level availability. As the dedicated TeraWave Radiation Engineer, you will own the end-to-end radiation hardness assurance (RHA) process. You will define mission-specific environments and margins, flow requirements to systems and parts, evaluate designs and test data, guide mitigation, and create the objective evidence needed to accept radiation risk.

Requirements

B.S. in electrical engineering, nuclear engineering, physics, aerospace engineering, materials science, or a related technical discipline.
5+ years of experience in spacecraft radiation effects, RHA, radiation test, electronic-device physics, or a closely related field.
Demonstrated knowledge of TID and SEE mechanisms, radiation environment modeling, shielding, and electronic design mitigation.
Experience interpreting radiation test data and determining whether data are applicable to a specific part, lot, operating condition, circuit, and mission.
Ability to derive and communicate radiation requirements, margins, assumptions, uncertainty, and residual risk across multiple engineering disciplines.
Ability to plan and execute technical work with external radiation test facilities and part suppliers.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Nice To Haves

M.S. or Ph.D. in radiation effects, electrical engineering, nuclear engineering, physics, or a related field.
Experience with both LEO and MEO missions and with trapped-electron/proton environments.
Experience testing or analyzing modern commercial and automotive-grade electronics, FPGAs, memories, power devices, RF electronics, and optoelectronics.
Familiarity with JEDEC, ASTM, ESCC, MIL-STD-883, NASA EEE-INST-002, and radiation test standards/guidance.
Experience connecting device-level radiation response to hardware reliability, availability, system performance, and fleet operations.
Experience with radiation effects on photovoltaic cells, coverglass selection, optical materials, polymers, adhesives, or coatings.

Responsibilities

Develop, maintain, and execute the TeraWave RHA Plan for LEO and MEO spacecraft, payloads, avionics, EPS, propulsion electronics, sensors, optical devices, and solar-array technologies.
Define and control external and internal radiation environments over the applicable mission lifetime, including trapped particles, solar particle events, galactic cosmic rays, total ionizing dose (TID), displacement damage dose (DDD/TNID), and single-event effects (SEE).
Translate mission orbit, duration, confidence level, shielding, duty cycle, and availability needs into system, subsystem, unit, circuit, and EEE-part radiation requirements.
Establish and maintain radiation design margin policy, including risk/criticality-based margin tiers and documented rationale for confidence, uncertainty, and lot-to-lot variability.
Perform or direct shielding, dose-depth, sectoring/ray-trace, and part-location analyses; work with configuration and mechanical teams to maintain an analyzable spacecraft geometry.
Evaluate EEE parts and optoelectronics for destructive and non-destructive SEE, TID, enhanced low-dose-rate sensitivity, DDD, and application-specific failure thresholds.
Calculate mission SEE rates and translate device events into circuit, box, subsystem, and system effects such as reset rate, data loss, outage, degraded throughput, latent damage, or destructive failure.
Partner with EEE Parts Engineering to screen BOMs, assess applicability of heritage and vendor data, disposition radiation risk, and define lot-specific testing or procurement controls.
Partner with electrical, RF, optical, and avionics hardware designers on radiation mitigation, including part substitution, shielding, current limiting, latch-up protection, filtering, redundancy, circuit-level protection, and operating constraints.
Support solar-array degradation predictions and end-of-life power assurance with the Solar and EPS teams, maintaining traceability among radiation confidence level, degradation factors, and the authoritative power budget.
Maintain the radiation risk register, part-by-part evidence status, waivers/deviations, open tests, and residual risk; support design reviews and flight-readiness decisions.
Monitor emerging radiation-effects data and provide rapid application-specific guidance for new technologies, commercial parts, FPGAs/processors, memories, power semiconductors, RFICs, and photonics.