Senior Radiation Effects & Resilience Engineer

Cowboy Space Corp.•San Carlos, CA

4d•$185,000 - $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 Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure.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 ideal for engineers who combine deep physics and radiation expertise with strong systems intuition and an interest in building large-scale compute infrastructure beyond Earth. This role is located onsite in San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA.

Requirements

5+ years hands-on experience in radiation effects analysis, radiation testing, or space systems reliability engineering.
Deep understanding of radiation interactions with semiconductor devices and electronic systems.
Strong knowledge of Total Ionizing Dose (TID), Single Event Effects (SEE), and Displacement Damage (DDD).
Experience planning and executing radiation characterization campaigns with external test facilities.
Experience working with high-performance compute hardware, semiconductor devices, or spaceborne electronics.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with architectural fault tolerance and resilient distributed systems.
Knowledge of NASA, ESA, ECSS, or MIL-STD radiation qualification standards.
Experience with shielding optimization and materials
Experience running radiation simulations and material characterization

Responsibilities

Lead radiation effects analysis and resilience strategy for orbital compute systems.
Analyze radiation effects on advanced semiconductor devices including GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs, networking ASICs, memory subsystems, and power electronics.
Evaluate and develop mitigation techniques for SEU, SET, SEL, TID, and displacement damage.
Define architectural resilience strategies including ECC, redundancy, fault detection and recovery, and software-defined fault tolerance mechanisms.
Plan and execute radiation test campaigns.
Coordinate with external laboratories and test facilities to define test conditions, sample preparation, biasing configurations, and data collection methodologies.
Analyze radiation test results and derive reliability metrics including cross-section analysis, FIT estimation, and mission reliability projections.
Develop radiation hardness assurance (RHA) methodologies for compute platforms and high-density PCB systems.
Collaborate with mechanical and packaging teams on shielding and structural mitigation strategies.
Investigate radiation-induced anomalies and drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
Contribute to component selection, platform architecture, and deployment readiness reviews.