System Architect, Space Electronics

Anduril • Waltham, MA

7d

About The Position

The System Architect on Anduril’s Imaging team owns the electronics architecture for space-bound imaging payloads and drives their design from concept through flight. The role defines electrical architecture and technical direction for power, sensor, and interface electronics, and makes build-versus-buy and COTS-versus-rad-hard tradeoffs to manage schedule and cost. The architect remains hands-on in hardware design, layout, bring-up, and qualification, working toward flight-ready payloads on rapid design cycles of twelve months or less.

The role requires strong engineering judgment, including evaluating which requirements are essential, iterating on physical hardware, and designing for manufacturability, testing, and EMI/EMC compliance from the outset. It operates with significant autonomy and provides technical guidance to less experienced engineers. The position is part of a team developing space-based EO/IR and sensing payloads using commercial-cadence engineering and a bias toward flying hardware.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of electrical engineering experience spanning system-level architecture, electronics design, and hands-on test, with a record of owning designs end to end.
• Degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ownership of electronics architecture for a complex electromechanical or sensor system, including consequential tradeoff decisions.
• Strong analog, digital, mixed-signal, and power electronics design experience.
• Deep proficiency in schematic capture and PCB layout.
• Proven ability to take hardware from architecture through bring-up, integration, and qualification, including hands-on laboratory debugging.
• Experience delivering hardware on aggressive timelines and working in rapid, iterative design cycles.
• Excellent engineering judgment and problem-solving ability, including making sound decisions with incomplete information under schedule pressure.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across a multidisciplinary engineering team.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Direct experience designing electronics for space, especially New Space or commercial-cadence programs that flew hardware in a year or less.
• Familiarity with space environments and qualification, including radiation effects (TID/SEE), rad-hard and rad-tolerant part selection, COTS-for-space approaches, TVAC, vibration, and EMI/EMC.
• Experience with EO/IR, RF, optical, or other sensor and communication systems.
• Experience designing for manufacturability and assembly and transitioning proven designs toward low-rate production to improve robustness and reduce cost.
• Familiarity with analytical tools and programming languages such as MATLAB, Python, or C++.
• Understanding of system integration processes and workflows in aerospace or defense environments.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading design reviews.

Responsibilities

• Own the electrical architecture for imaging payloads, including system partitioning and definition of power, sensor, data, and interface electronics.
• Drive architectural tradeoffs such as COTS versus radiation-hardened components and performance versus schedule versus cost.
• Lead design, layout, bring-up, and qualification of PCBAs spanning analog, mixed-signal, FPGAs, and power electronics for EO/IR sensor systems.
• Translate sensor and system performance models into electrical requirements and challenge requirements that do not warrant a place on the critical path.
• Run rapid design-build-test cycles, including prototyping, bench characterization, hardware iteration, and convergence on flight-ready designs.
• Design for space conditions including radiation, thermal extremes, vacuum, vibration, and launch loads; own the analysis and testing, including TVAC, vibration, and EMI/EMC.
• Incorporate design for manufacturability and assembly from the initial schematic to support low-rate production as programs mature.
• Lead board bring-up, integration, and troubleshooting in the lab and during environmental and integration testing using standard bench equipment.
• Partner with firmware, optics, mechanical, systems, and program teams to drive integration and resolve anomalies quickly.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to electrical engineers and serve as a design-review and decision-making anchor for electronics.
• Document architectures, designs, analyses, and test results to support flight readiness and program reviews.

Benefits

• Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full-time offers and are part of total compensation.
• Comprehensive, competitive benefits package available at little to no cost to employees.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior