Senior Avionics Hardware Development Engineer

Quick Facts

• Role: Senior Avionics Hardware Development Engineer

• Focus: Flight-critical electrical hardware for satellite bus, reentry vehicle, and customer payloads

Description

Own the avionics hardware domain from schematic capture through flight qualification. Define subsystem requirements, design to meet them, and ensure manufactured systems comply—including defining safe operating criteria and supporting operations on risk tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Lead PCB-level electronics design across the full lifecycle: schematic capture, layout, design validation, fabrication/assembly, and manufacturing test.

• Support avionics architecture trade studies, analyses, performance characterization, device selection, and roadmap direction.

• Act as avionics subject matter expert for satellite, reentry vehicle, and payload hardware; support teams using your products.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (flight software, thermal, GNC, structures) to evaluate system impacts of design decisions.

• Own product acceptance and qualification testing for space environments (thermal, vibe, shock, TVAC, EMI) with support from the Avionics Test team.

• Provide direction for system-level integration test plans verifying hardware performance at the vehicle level.

• Perform root cause analysis on test failures and implement mitigation strategies for flight risks.

• Mentor junior engineers and raise the bar for future design methodologies.

Requirements

• B.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering (or related engineering discipline)

• 5+ years of direct experience designing electronics hardware: schematic capture, PCB layout, board bring-up, and environmental qualification for aerospace or other high-reliability industries

• Demonstrated experience taking complex electronics systems from design to production/deployment

• Advanced PCB design expertise: high-speed signal integrity, power and grounding, electromagnetic compatibility

• Experience taking PCB designs through fabrication and assembly

• Expert user of Altium and/or KiCad EDA suites

• Hands-on lab experience with oscilloscopes, function generators, benchtop digital multimeters, and power supplies

• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or another scripting/data analysis language

• Experience implementing hardware-layer communication protocols including SPI, RS-422, and 1000BASE-T

• Experience designing analog/digital filtering and mixed-signal circuits

• Power electronics design experience including load switches and switch mode DC:DC converters

• ITAR requirement: must be a “U.S. person” authorized to access export-controlled technology

Benefits

• Long-term incentives via stock options and/or long-term cash awards

• On-site role in El Segundo, CA

• Salary range: $140,333 - $202,703 per year