Avionics Systems Engineer (Crew Starship Avionics)

AVIONICS SYSTEMS ENGINEER (CREW STARSHIP AVIONICS)

Become a part of the Crew Starship Avionics team and support the mission to revolutionize orbital flight and space travel – opening access for humankind to establish new frontiers in space, and ultimately make humans a multi-planetary species.  

The Crew Starship Avionics team has taken the challenge to develop avionics for the SpaceX Human Landing System, which will soon carry astronauts to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Across all systems, from communications, to power, to life support, to navigation, and even creature comforts, our team’s hardware will safely support astronauts on their lunar mission, while humanity looks on. This will be one of the most sophisticated and largest crewed vehicles flown in space, and will be developed at a cost and rate previously considered unthinkable in the space industry. Become a part of this fast moving and world class development team, working with super smart and motivated engineers, and achieve truly audacious goals. If you’re ready for a challenge and would like to help take humanity back to the moon then you’ve come to the right place!

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Act as responsible engineer for avionics vehicles systems, across design, integration, test, and launch of vehicles
• Define detailed system design, including system interconnect schematics, consumable budgets, harness and channel capabilities, fault tolerance, reliability, hardware manifest, vehicle risk, and configuration change management
• Work collaboratively with customers and experts from other teams to perform system trades, define vehicle architecture, and scope new designs as they move from concept, through prototype, and into production
• Analyze and track key performance metrics for avionics systems from concept to the field, and assess new designs to optimize manufacturability, quality, and cost
• Work with avionics production to triage, troubleshoot, root cause, and repair issues from initial integration through critical pad operations
• Act as the system lead for projects including creating, maintaining, and communicating development schedules
• Directly support NASA with deliverables for Crew Starship milestones
• Support vehicle pad and flight operations as Avionics specialist responsible for evaluating vehicle health, resolving issues real time, and recommending path forward
• Verify test coverage and flight readiness for avionics system hardware, and validate as-built vehicles are “GO for launch”

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical, mechanical, aerospace engineering, or other engineering discipline
• 2+ years of experience with electrical component design, system level integration of electronic components, or system level testing (research and extracurricular academic projects qualify)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Passion for spaceflight and high reliability electronic systems
• Experience with system trades and first-hand knowledge of how requirements tie hardware to larger systems
• Self-starter with experience making hardware work within demanding time and resource constraints
• Creative problem solver with strong first principle fundamentals across multiple disciplines to assess risk and make design and development decisions without all available data
• Hands-on experience with sizing, installation and troubleshooting of various electronic components
• Experience with wire harness design and build, including associated sub-components
• Experience with NX or similar CAD design software
• Experience with Altium or similar PCBA design software
• Experience with system design and testing for hardware sub-systems such as RF, power, communications, human interface, and sensors
• Familiarity with electrical test equipment (multimeters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, etc.), and basic analysis techniques
• Experience writing engineering software for test automation, data review, and design analysis, preferably in MATLAB or Python
• Demonstrated project management skills and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Extended hours and weekend work may be required to support critical project and mission milestones

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay range:
Avionics Systems Engineer/Level I: $100,000.00 – $120,000.00/per year
Avionics Systems Engineer/Level II: $115,000.00 – $135,000.00/per year

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Exempt employees are eligible for 5 days of sick leave per year.