Senior Electrical Design Engineer

Besxar•Washington, DC

12d•$175,000 - $225,000

About The Position

Besxar Space Industries, Inc. is developing off-Earth foundries that use the natural ultra-high vacuum of space to manufacture semiconductor materials. The Senior Electrical Design Engineer leads electrical engineering R&D for Fabships, owning major ECAD assemblies and translating mission and business requirements into flightworthy electrical hardware and integration plans. The role helps establish electrical engineering practices as the team grows and works closely with systems, mechanical, software, materials, manufacturing, and test teams. This is a hands-on technical leadership role covering architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout oversight, analysis, assembly, bring-up, integration, verification, qualification, and design iteration. The engineer develops electrical systems and hardware for demanding space environments, supports repeated flight operations, and applies findings from testing and operational experience to improve subsequent hardware revisions. The position also contributes to design reviews, root-cause investigations, team standards, and mentorship.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a similar technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of progressive electrical design engineering experience developing complex hardware products from concept through build, integration, and test.
Demonstrated ownership of large ECAD assemblies and electrical product development for highly integrated spacecraft, aerospace, defense, semiconductor/process equipment, or other high-failure-consequence systems.
Proficiency with a modern ECAD platform such as Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD, Xpedition, or similar, and released documentation packages, revision control, and PDM/PLM workflows.
Strong electrical design fundamentals, including analog and mixed-signal design, power electronics, grounding and shielding, component selection, radiation protection schemes, interface definition, and hardware verification.
Hands-on build and assembly experience, including working directly with hardware in a lab, on the floor, or with suppliers to debug interfaces, close issues, and improve designs.
Experience designing, integrating, or qualifying high-reliability electronics using space-rated, radiation-tolerant, or rad-hard components.
Experience using lab equipment and development testing of electronic assemblies and subsystems, including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, waveform generators, DAQ systems, and other instrumentation.
Ability to apply lessons learned from designs, build issues, and test outcomes to improve robustness, manufacturability, and development speed.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including documenting assumptions, presenting at design reviews, and driving cross-functional alignment.
Ability to work independently in ambiguous environments, define requirements, challenge assumptions, make tradeoffs, and deliver without heavy oversight.
Must be willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed around test campaigns, flight readiness, and major customer milestones.
Ability to travel for short and extended trips as needed.
For work that requires access to export-controlled information, applicants must meet applicable U.S. export-control eligibility requirements or be eligible to obtain required authorizations.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing spacecraft, satellite, launch, RF, or other hardware intended for vacuum, thermal, vibration, shock, and radiation environments.
Experience with high-power converters, power distribution architectures, load switching/protection, and dense electromechanical integration for constrained platforms.
Experience with RF hardware, communications links, high-frequency interconnect, or mixed-signal signal chains requiring careful layout, isolation, and test discipline.
Experience with processors, FPGAs, memory, ADCs/DACs, sensor interfaces, and digital buses such as SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet, or RS422.
Experience developing HITL systems, automated test infrastructure, or qualification setups; proficiency writing test automation, data collection, and analysis scripts in Python, MATLAB, or similar.
Experience selecting components for radiation environments and applying derating, worst-case analysis, FMEA, SEE/TID tradeoffs, or similar reliability methods.
Experience with EMI/EMC-aware design, grounding/shielding strategy, and diagnosing test exceedances to closure.
Experience supporting environmental or qualification testing, including thermal vacuum, vibration, shock, EMI/EMC, and end-to-end integrated system tests.
Experience applying DFM/DFA/DFT principles to optimize product designs, reduce production costs, improve assembly efficiency, and ensure robust, testable hardware throughout the product life cycle.
Track record of end-to-end ownership from architecture through test and iteration on complex hardware programs.
Experience in early-stage or high-growth environments where speed, pragmatism, and sound judgment matter.
Experience mentoring engineers or technicians and helping establish standards for a growing hardware team.
Experience supporting export-controlled or ITAR-sensitive hardware development environments.

Responsibilities

Lead electrical design and R&D for Fabships, including architecture, trade studies, detailed design, and integration strategy across power electronics, avionics, RF subsystems, instrumentation, DAQ, test interfaces, and ground hardware.
Own major ECAD assemblies and electrical product structures/BOMs for critical systems, maintaining configuration discipline, interfaces, libraries, and complete release packages.
Translate system requirements into manufacturable, testable, high-reliability electrical designs balancing performance, mass, power, thermal behavior, radiation tolerance, EMI/EMC, fault protection, serviceability, cost, and schedule.
Drive hardware development from concept and component selection through schematic capture, PCB layout, prototype builds, bring-up, verification, qualification, vehicle integration, and flight or mission feedback.
Design and analyze circuits and assemblies for high-power electronics, power conversion and distribution, mixed-signal interfaces, RF signal chains, spacecraft instrumentation, DAQ, and sensor/actuator interfaces.
Lead hands-on assembly, lab bring-up, and integration of PCBAs, harnesses, enclosures, and test setups.
Create or review board bring-up plans, procedures, work instructions, documentation, higher-level test plans, functional test procedures, assembly procedures, and environmental test limits.
Lead development of post-launch inspection criteria, checkout flows, and test plans for repeated flight operations.
Develop hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) and bench test capabilities to validate subsystem behavior, characterize performance, close requirements, and accelerate debugging.
Perform and review electrical analyses, including worst-case and derating analysis, grounding and isolation, EMI/EMC, radiation and environmental considerations, and failure-mode and risk assessments.
Apply lessons learned from design experience, integration results, supplier issues, environmental testing, on-orbit operation, and failure investigations to improve hardware revisions.
Partner with technicians, manufacturing, supply chain, and vendors to progress assemblies through fabrication, inspection, PCBA assembly, rework, verification, integration, and environmental test.
Lead or contribute to design reviews, root-cause investigations, anomaly resolution, and configuration changes.
Help define electrical engineering practices, including ECAD conventions, library management, design checklists, release processes, test standards, and cross-functional review norms.
Mentor engineers and contribute technical leadership as the electrical team grows.