Avionics Design Engineer - Spacecraft

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominate transportation mode - horse drawn chariots, ocean going boats, or aircraft. These were spurred by a small group of people rigorously focused on building technology to achieve faster access to more of the world. We seek to usher in a new era of humanity defined by universal access to the whole globe free of borders and the presence of a routine way from space to Earth. To do this, we are building highly maneuverable re-entry vehicles that can loiter in orbit before precision landing back on Earth.

What You’ll Do:

As an Inversion Avionics Engineer, you will have an instrumental impact on the functionality and performance of our next-generation reentry vehicles. You will own a substantial aspect of the flight computer and avionics system that enables our spacecraft to complete its mission of operating in space and eventually returning to be recovered. Your impact will be on developing custom hardware and integrated COTS hardware to enable our capsules’ missions to be the world’s first reentry vehicle designed for turning space into a transportation layer for Earth.

Our avionics engineers are responsible for the complete lifecycle of the hardware they create, including development, testing, and support.

• Testing, qualification, and integration of spacecraft hardware for our upcoming spacecraft launch, Ray.
• Create and lead clean sheet design and analyses of space capsule avionics hardware from component design through integration and testing.
• Develop, lead, and own digital, analog, and mixed-signal circuit avionic designs, and rugged electronic hardware assemblies throughout the product life cycle.
• Qualify your designs through environmental testing including vibration, shock, thermal, and thermal vacuum testing.
• Assist in architecting flight software for future vehicles.

In addition to contributing to the flight software for our upcoming mission, you will also play an instrumental role in helping architect the software and system for our future vehicle, Arc.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 4+ years of professional experience of the design, build, and test cycle for satellite and spacecraft flight computer hardware.
• Experience designing PCBAs using Altium Designer or other ECAD design software.
• Experience implementing mixed-signal PCBs with digital communications (UART, I2C, SPI, RS422, RS485, CAN, PCIe, Ethernet, Spacewire, etc.).
• Strong understanding and experience with requirements, systems design, and test methods for space, launch, and/or reentry environments including thermal, vibration, shock, EMI/EMC, and radiation.

Desired Qualifications:

• 6+ years of professional experience of the design, build, and test cycle for electrical/avionics hardware.
• Experience with FPGAs and high performance microcontrollers
• Experience using common laboratory equipment such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, spectrum analyzers, and data acquisition systems.
• Familiarity working with common spacecraft ADCS sensors and propulsion components (star trackers, reaction wheels, thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors (RTDs), pressure transducers, solenoid valves, etc.).
• Prior experience working in startups and small independent teams.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $140,000-$200,000. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.