Senior Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Development Engineer

Varda Space Industries•El Segundo, CA

1d•$140,333 - $202,703•Onsite

About The Position

As a Senior Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Development Engineer at Varda, 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, define subsystem requirements from mission and company objectives, design to those requirements, and ensure manufactured systems meet them. You will also define safe operating criteria and support mission operations teams in assessing risks when operating near those criteria. The role includes designing and building electrical hardware and rigorously testing components beyond expected flight conditions, with thorough investigation of failures. It is based on-site in El Segundo, California. The position requires U.S.-person status because employees have access to export-controlled items. The stated salary range is $140,333–$202,703 per year, with eligibility for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 5 years of direct electronics hardware design experience, including schematic capture, PCB layout, board bring-up, and environmental qualification, in 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 knowledge of 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 and digital filtering and mixed-signal circuits.
Power electronics design experience, including load switches and switch-mode DC:DC converters.
Must meet the stated U.S.-person eligibility requirement for access to export-controlled items.

Nice To Haves

Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills.
Strong general knowledge of physics, mathematics, and chemistry fundamentals relevant to designing electronics for unique environments.
Understanding of aerospace sensor and actuator technologies, including RTDs, pressure transducers, brushless motors, solenoid valves, thermocouples, stepper motors, and rotary or 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 the avionics subject matter expert for satellite, reentry vehicle, and payload hardware, supporting the 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 mitigation strategies for flight risks.
Mentor junior engineers on their projects, challenges, and design methodologies.