Software Engineer I: Payload Engineer
About The Position
As a Payload Engineer I at Lodestar, you'll be joining the payload team as a primary delivery engineer on CORONA, a SpaceWERX Direct-to-Phase-II program to take an integrated autonomous sensing and effector payload from laboratory breadboard to qualified engineering model. You'll help design, build, integrate and test the payload across optics, mechanical, avionics and software. Working alongside the Founding Engineer and senior systems, GNC, electronics and optics engineers, you'll take the engineering model through 18 months and nine milestones, with design reviews in front of USSF, Space Systems Command and AFRL at each gate. This is an early-career role with a deliberately broad scope. We're looking for hands-on building experience and fast learning rather than a long track record, and you'll own the engineering model from day one with the support to grow into it. We proudly have an "extreme ownership" oriented engineering culture.
Requirements
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, Physics, Optics or Photonics, Robotics, Computer Science, or demonstrated equivalent knowledge
- 0–2 years of professional experience. Early-career candidates, including recent graduates, are encouraged to apply
- Hands-on evidence of building something real and making it work, such as a university cubesat or rocketry team, research lab, Formula Student, a hardware internship, or a project taken from nothing to working. We weight this far above grades
- Working proficiency in Python
- U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Nice To Haves
- Space exposure in any form: cubesat program, hosted payload, space or defense internship, or a space-focused Master's project
- Optics and photonics bench work (laser safety experience, e.g. ANSI Z136, a plus)
- Computer vision
- Closed-loop pointing and control
- Environmental test and integration
- Systems engineering practice
- Embedded or real-time software
Responsibilities
- Own the payload engineering model day to day, end to end: requirements, design, build, integration, test and write-up
- Develop payload, autonomy, effector, power, thermal and pointing requirements, and the ICDs between payload, avionics and spacecraft bus
- Prepare SRR, PDR and CDR packages, and keep the verification matrix and risk register current between gates
- Integrate the engineering model: effector subsystem, edge-compute avionics, and a multimodal sensor suite (optical, LiDAR, radar)
- Carry out optical alignment and performance verification, and feed corrective design iterations back into the build
- Run hardware-in-the-loop testing in the Void Lab, closing the loop from perception through to pointing against simulated orbital targets
- Support environmental qualification (TVAC, launch vibration, EMC/EMI), including pre- and post-test functional testing and the anomaly and corrective-action trail
- Deliver an end-to-end ground demonstration on a payload-in-the-loop testbed
- Produce customer-facing documentation: test reports, qualification dossier, and final performance assessment against KPPs
Benefits
- Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
- Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
- Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- long-term incentives, in the form of stock options
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Entry Level
