Senior Electrical Engineer – Spacecraft Power Systems & Bus Architecture

Portal Space Systems • Bothell, WA

2d

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer with deep expertise in hardware electrical design for spacecraft, particularly in power systems engineering and bus-level power management.

Requirements

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, related field or equivalent.
• 5+ years of experience designing power systems for aerospace, spacecraft, or other high-reliability platforms.
• Experience with power electronics design, including DC-DC converters, battery management systems, and overcurrent/undervoltage protection circuits.
• Experience using ECAD tools (e.g., Altium Designer) for board design and system schematics.
• Experience testing and debugging flight or flight-like power hardware in lab and system testbeds.
• U.S. persons, which includes U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other protected individuals as defined by U.S. law.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with spacecraft power architectures including unregulated and regulated bus designs.
• Knowledge of space-grade components, derating guidelines, and radiation effects on power electronics.
• Familiarity with power system modeling and analysis tools (e.g., PLECS, SPICE).
• Experience with EPS integration and operations on actual flight programs.
• Familiarity with standards such as NASA-STD-4005, ECSS-E-ST-20-20, or NASA power interface specs.

Responsibilities

• Architect and design spacecraft power systems including solar array interfaces, battery charge/discharge regulation, power distribution units (PDUs), and system-level grounding schemes.
• Lead development of the main spacecraft power bus: voltage regulation, load management, protection, and redundancy strategies.
• Perform trade studies and system sizing for battery capacity, solar array performance, and bus architecture optimization.
• Develop schematics, PCB layouts, and cable harnessing for power boards and interface hardware.
• Drive hardware bring-up, functional testing, and fault isolation on power boards and integrated systems.
• Collaborate with systems, mechanical, and thermal engineers to align EPS design with mission requirements and spacecraft constraints.
• Contribute to environmental testing for acceptance and qualification and EMI/EMC compliance for power hardware.
• Coordinate with Launch Providers on interfaces and concept of operations during payload integration, launch pad and waking up in space.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Associate degree