Senior Compute Validation Engineer

Cowboy Space Corp.•San Carlos, CA

1d•$150,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth. Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport. Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases. Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others. This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you. This role is highly hands-on. You will own validation strategy and work across electrical, firmware, thermal, mechanical, and system software teams to uncover and resolve failure modes during launch and after orbital deployment.

Requirements

Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
Experience in board design review, system validation, or compute hardware engineering.
5+ years of experience designing and building compute hardware system
Strong background in server, accelerated compute, or embedded compute platforms.
Deep understanding of motherboard architecture, high-speed signaling, power delivery systems, and system management infrastructure.
Extensive hands-on debugging experience at board and system level.
Proficiency with lab equipment including oscilloscopes and protocol analyzers.
Experience with scripting or automation in Python, C/C++, or similar languages.
Strong ownership mentality and ability to independently drive technical problems to resolution.
Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Nice To Haves

8+ years of experience designing and building compute hardware system
Experience with remote management technologies such as Redfish or IPMI.
Experience with spacecraft avionics, power systems, and thermal systems
Experience with environmental testing (vibe, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC)
Radiation testing for LEO avionics background
Track record of ownership and leadership

Responsibilities

Lead board bring-up and system validation for advanced edge compute platforms.
Develop validation methodologies covering signal integrity, power integrity, power sequencing, thermal behavior, and system reliability.
Debug complex hardware and firmware interactions across High-speed interconnects (PCIe, Nvidia NVLink, AMD XGMI), memory subsystems, BMC/SMC and HMC architectures.
Perform detailed board analysis using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and power instrumentation.
Drive root-cause analysis for system failures discovered during validation and environmental testing.
Design and validate interfaces using protocols such as I2C, SPI, and UART.
Partner closely with mechanical, thermal, firmware, and software teams to ensure robust system integration.
Help define engineering standards and validation processes for flight-ready compute hardware.