Avionics Hardware Engineer
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Job Description
About SpaceX and Starshield:
SpaceX was founded on the vision of enabling humanity to become a spacefaring civilization, with a primary focus on making human life on Mars a reality. They are actively developing the technologies to achieve this ambitious goal. Starshield is a SpaceX program leveraging their Starlink technology and launch capabilities to support national security efforts. Unlike the consumer-focused Starlink, Starshield is designed for government use, initially concentrating on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.
Job Description: Avionics Hardware Engineer (Starshield)
This role demands extreme ownership and responsibility for the successful operation of Starshield’s bus and payloads in orbit. The Avionics Hardware Engineer will be deeply involved in all phases of the hardware lifecycle, from initial conception to on-orbit troubleshooting.
Key Responsibilities:
• Design and Development: Electrical architecture and design, generating product requirements, selecting components, performing analysis, schematic capture, and thorough documentation. This includes involvement in prototyping, vendor selection, and manufacturing.
• Hardware Bring-up and Testing: Complete circuit and full product bring-up, debugging, troubleshooting, and conducting confidence, acceptance, and qualification testing. Delivering flight-ready hardware on schedule is crucial.
• Production and Project Management: Managing project schedules, generating status reports, and actively participating in flight production.
• Integration and Operations: Integrating the hardware into the complete vehicle, participating in integrated testing, supporting on-orbit operations, and reviewing collected data.
• Collaboration and System Engineering: Working closely with multidisciplinary teams (software, firmware, mechanical, PCB layout, environmental testing, integration, harnessing, test, manufacturing, and production) to ensure a fully functional and integrated product. System-level thinking is essential to avoid conflicts and ensure design viability. The engineer will proactively drive improvements in reliability and capabilities while minimizing cost and schedule impacts.
Required Skills and Experience:
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or physics.
• Experience: 1+ years of professional experience designing and delivering electrical hardware (internship and project experience are applicable).
Preferred Skills and Experience:
• Master’s degree in a relevant engineering field.
• 4+ years of professional experience rapidly designing and delivering highly reliable products.
• 2+ years of experience designing electrical hardware from concept to production, with a strong emphasis on full lifecycle development.
• 2+ years of experience designing mixed-signal circuit boards using processors, FPGAs, various communication protocols (Ethernet, multi-GHz SerDes, I2C, SPI), memory interfaces (DDR4), and various analog components (op-amps, ADCs, DACs, power supplies).
• 2+ years of hands-on experience testing, troubleshooting, and debugging electronics.
• 2+ years of experience working on fast-paced projects.
• Strong understanding of computers and programming languages (Python, C/C++).
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a highly cross-functional role.
• Ability to thrive in a demanding, autonomously driven startup environment.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Passion for the space industry and human spaceflight.
• Active Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance (desired but not required).
