Senior Space Avionics Hardware Development Engineer

Varda Space•El Segundo, CA

10h•Onsite

About The Position

Varda is developing commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. Its W-Series vehicles, pharmaceutical payloads, heat shields, and satellite buses are designed, built, and operated in-house. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC, and Huntsville, Alabama. As a Senior Space Avionics Hardware Development Engineer, you will design and deliver flight-critical electrical hardware for satellite buses, reentry vehicles, and customer payloads. You will own your hardware domain from schematic capture through flight qualification, defining subsystem requirements from mission and company objectives, designing to those requirements, and verifying that manufactured systems meet them. You will also establish safe operating criteria and support mission operations in evaluating risks when operating near those limits. Varda subjects hardware to stresses beyond expected flight conditions and investigates failures thoroughly. The position is on-site in El Segundo, California. The stated annual salary range is $140,333–$202,703. Level and base salary depend on job-related skills, education, experience, and performance. The role is eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards. Because employees may access export-controlled items, Varda’s policy is to hire U.S. persons authorized to access the technology without an export license. Varda participates in E-Verify and is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Requirements

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 5 years of direct experience designing electronics hardware—including schematic capture, PCB layout, board bring-up, and environmental qualification—for aerospace, automotive, or another high-reliability industry.
Demonstrated experience contributing to complex electronics systems from design through production or deployment.
Advanced PCB design expertise, including high-speed signal integrity, power and grounding, and electromagnetic compatibility.
Experience taking complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly.
Expertise with Altium and/or KiCad EDA suites.
Strong hands-on laboratory experience with electronic test equipment, including oscilloscopes, function generators, benchtop digital multimeters, and power supplies.
Experience programming in Python, MATLAB, or another scripting or data-analysis language.
Demonstrated experience implementing hardware layers for multiple on-board and over-harness communication protocols, such as SPI, RS-422, and 1000BASE-T.
Experience designing analog/digital filtering and mixed-signal circuits.
Power electronics design experience, including load switches and switch-mode DC:DC converters.
Must meet Varda’s U.S.-person requirement for access to export-controlled technology.

Nice To Haves

Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills.
Strong supporting general knowledge of physics, mathematics, and chemistry fundamentals for designing electronics that experience unique environments.
Understanding of aerospace sensor and actuator technologies, including RTDs, pressure transducers, brushless motors, solenoid valves, thermocouples, stepper motors, and rotary/linear encoders.

Responsibilities

Design PCB-level electronics throughout the lifecycle, including schematic capture, layout, design validation, fabrication and assembly, and manufacturing test.
Support avionics architecture trade studies, analyses, performance characterization and specification, device selection, and roadmap direction.
Serve as an avionics subject matter expert for satellite, reentry vehicle, and payload hardware.
Support teams that use the hardware, including GNC, pharmaceutical, mission operations, and integration teams.
Collaborate with flight software, thermal, GNC, structures, and other cross-functional teams to assess vehicle-wide impacts of design decisions.
Own product acceptance and qualification testing for space environments, including thermal, vibration, shock, TVAC, and EMI testing, with support from the Avionics Test team.
Provide direction on system-level integration test plans to verify hardware performance at the vehicle level.
Perform root cause analysis on test failures and implement holistic mitigations for flight risks.
Mentor junior engineers on projects, challenges, and design methodologies.