Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer

Location: This role is based onsite at our Louisville, CO office.
Travel: Up to 10%, domestic or international.

The Role

As a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer, you will take ownership of full-cycle PCBA designs, from early concept to flight readiness. You will work cross-functionally with RF, mechanical, software, FPGA/SoC, and operations teams to bring high-reliability, space-ready electronics to orbit. You will guide the Electrical Engineering team on special topics and present across disciplines to help facilitate ideas, product readiness, and conduct reviews.

Responsibilities

• Own the full electrical design lifecycle for complex spaceflight hardware: concept of operations, requirements engineering, schematic capture, layout, bring-up, test, and manufacturing handoff.
• Develop robust analog/digital designs for mission-critical systems under environmental and performance constraints.
• Organize collaborative cross-disciplinary design reviews and shape solutions with experienced engineers.
• Provide input to schedule planning, hardware requirements, and process improvements.
• Lead board-level bring-up and debugging, integrating firmware/software/FPGA with embedded systems.
• Define test plans and verification strategies that meet flight readiness requirements.
• Scale manufacturing from prototype to low-volume production.
• Collaborate with mechanical, RF, software, FPGA/SoC, and systems teams for seamless integration.
• Mentor early-career engineers and contribute to process improvements.
• Engage with external vendors and contract manufacturers, resolve DFM/DFT issues, and ensure on-time delivery.
• Drive failure analysis and root-cause investigations for flight or test anomalies.

What Success Looks Like

• Consistently deliver flight-quality hardware on schedule with minimal oversight.
• Identify system-level risks early and drive mitigations.
• Communicate effectively across hardware, software, and cross-functional teams.
• Make data-driven trade-offs in constrained environments.
• Demonstrate curiosity in advanced areas such as architecture optimization and radiation mitigation.
• Exhibit advanced, wide-ranging experience in electrical engineering.
• Align stakeholders and document work concisely.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of experience designing and debugging PCBAs.
• Proficiency in Altium Designer or similar ECAD tools.
• Hands-on experience with lab instruments (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power analyzers).
• Solid understanding of digital buses (I2C, SPI, UART, RS422, CAN, USB, PCIe, Ethernet).
• Experience with board bring-up, test planning, and design verification workflows.
• Experience interacting with contract manufacturers and supporting DFM reviews.
• Strong documentation and organizational skills.
• Must meet U.S. export control and ITAR requirements.

Required Qualification

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• Experience designing for harsh environments (thermal, vacuum, vibration).
• Familiarity with high-speed design and impedance-controlled layouts.
• Basic scripting or automation in Python or C for hardware test workflows.
• Exposure to radiation effects and mitigation in electronic design.
• Familiarity with EMI/EMC design practices and validation.
• Familiarity with satellite electrical systems engineering (EPS, GNSS, ADCS, propulsion, space robotics).

Compensation

Base salary range: $145,920 - $192,047, determined by education, qualifications, experience, and market data.

• Medical, dental, and vision plans
• 401(k) matching
• Unlimited PTO and paid holidays
• Parental/adoption leave
• Legal insurance
• Home technology stipend

US Technical Jobs

Employment is contingent on verifying U.S. Person status or obtaining necessary export control authorization for access to export-controlled technology and government contracts work.