Section Leader, Electrical Assembly Operations

Ipd Group; Sydney; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity (ESOP)

Annual leave + personal/sick leave

Public holidays

Job summary

Space Machines Company is seeking an Electronics Technician in Sydney (Botany) to support Rendezvous and Proximity Operations hardware. You will rework, test, and integrate flight electronics, harnesses and lab equipment in a controlled environment.

You will collaborate with electronics designers, maintain lab discipline, and contribute to build, test and environmental campaigns. In-office role with growth opportunities within the AIT team.

Qualifications

• Trade qualification or diploma in electronics or related field.
• 3+ years hands-on experience building, testing or maintaining electronic hardware in aerospace or other high‑reliability fields.
• Experience soldering and rework on fine-pitch surface mount and through-hole assemblies.
• Experience manufacturing and testing wiring harnesses and cable assemblies.
• Proficient with lab instruments (oscilloscopes, multimeters, bench supplies, logic analyzers) and reading schematics.

Responsibilities

• Rework, repair and modify populated electronic assemblies to flight standards.
• Manufacture, modify and test flight and EGSE wiring harnesses.
• Own the electronics lab end to end: tooling, consumables, calibration and ESD control.
• Run subsystem and unit level test campaigns and capture traceable data.
• Support prototype bring-up and fault-finding with the design team.
• Perform flight hardware assembly and integration under controlled conditions.
• Write procedures and keep as-built records for regulators.
• Provide feedback on manufacturability and testability early in the design cycle.

Skills

Electronics

Avionics

Mechatronics

High-reliability

Education

Electronics diploma

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Multimeters

Bench supplies

Logic analyzers

Job description

Our mission is to safeguard critical space infrastructure by providing the first integrated security platform to see threats, decide fast and respond at scale. Where spacecraft have traditionally been costly, slow to produce and require extensive effort to coordinate, SMC is developing systems that are produced at scale and operated with human-on-the-loop autonomy to drastically reduce the cost and complexity of orbital operations.

As space becomes more congested and contested, the satellites that underpin modern life, including communications, navigation, financial systems, are increasingly exposed. We are developing the vehicles and software to protect them, working with commercial operators and government agencies across allied nations.

Our approach is grounded in economics as much as engineering. The Optimus Viper Rapid Response Vehicle delivers genuine mission capability at a fraction of conventional spacecraft cost, designed for high-volume production and rapid deployment across all orbital regimes. Solstice OS, our AI-driven command and control platform, fuses space domain awareness data and automates mission planning and vehicle coordination, allowing smaller teams to manage larger constellations and respond to emerging situations in seconds rather than hours.

The future of space depends on assets that can be inspected, monitored and protected in orbit. We are building the technology to make that possible.

Why Join Us

We’re a start up. Things move fast, resources are lean, and we’re building as we go.

What we offer is opportunity: to learn at speed, grow with the company, and leave your fingerprints on something that’s never been done before. At Space Machines Company, engineers, innovators, and problem solvers join forces to push the limits of what’s possible.

If you want to build technology designed to protect and power humanity’s future in space and see your work make a visible impact. This is where you’ll do it.

How We Work

We are builders first.

We approach every challenge through a cycle of design, build, test, and refine. Making ideas real, learning from results, and improving with each iteration.

We challenge assumptions to make sure we’re solving the right problems, and we strengthen our solutions through collaboration and feedback.

We use process where it adds value and set it aside where it slows us down. There are a lot of firsts here, and we meet them with curiosity and courage.

We win as one team.

Requirements

As our Electronics Technician, you live on the bench and in the cleanroom, keeping the flight and ground support electronics of our Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) capable spacecraft alive through assembly, integration and test.

You will spend your time reworking and repairing populated assemblies, manufacturing and testing flight and EGSE harnesses, running unit and subsystem test campaigns, and keeping the electronics lab in a state where anyone can walk up to a bench and trust what is on it. You will work alongside our electronics designers bringing up boards, standing up test setups and fault‑finding to component level and feed manufacturability and testability input back before designs are committed. This is an in-office role at our Sydney (Botany) facility.

In this role, you own outcomes from end to end, including:

Rework & Repair - Repair, rework and modify populated electronic assemblies to flight standard, including fine‑pitch surface mount and through‑hole work, conformal coating, staking and cleaning. This is the heart of the role.

Harness Manufacture - Manufacture, modify and test flight and EGSE wiring harnesses – cut, crimp, connector assembly, lacing, backshells and potting, through to continuity and insulation resistance verification.

Electronics Lab Ownership - Own the electronics lab end to end: tooling, consumables, calibration status, ESD compliance and bench discipline. The lab works because you make it work.

Test Execution - Run subsystem and unit level test campaigns. Set up and operate test equipment, work to written procedures, capture data and record results with full traceability.

Bring-Up & Fault‑Finding - Support in-house electronics development through prototype board bring‑up, debugging of test setups, and methodical fault‑finding to component level alongside the design team.

Flight Hardware Integration - As part of the AIT team, perform assembly and integration on flight hardware under ESD, FOD and cleanroom controlled conditions, and support environmental test campaigns including vibration, thermal vacuum and EMC including instrumenting the test article and standing up ground support equipment.

Documentation & Nonconformance - Write and red‑line work instructions, test procedures and as‑built records to a standard presentable to external partners and regulators. Raise and help close non‑conformances.

Design Feedback - Provide practical feedback on manufacturability, testability, maintainability and serviceability, early enough to change the outcome.

There is room to grow. If you have the interest, you will be supported on the design of support electronics in house such as break‑out boards, test jigs, interface adapters and harness test boxes from requirement through schematic capture, layout and fabrication, with guidance and mentoring from the electronics design team. That is an opportunity in this role, not a prerequisite for it.

About You

You’ll thrive in this role if you bring:

A technician’s hands — precise, repeatable workmanship on hardware that has to survive launch and then work for years with nobody able to reach it.

Methodical fault‑finding — following the evidence to the failing component rather than swapping parts and hoping.

Ownership of the space around you — a lab that is calibrated, stocked, ESD‑safe and ready, because you keep it that way.

The judgement to stop — speaking up when something doesn’t look right, before it becomes a non‑conformance on flight hardware.

Proven experience:

• Trade qualification, diploma, or strong exhibited experience in electronics, avionics, mechatronics or a related technical discipline
• 3+ years hands‑on experience building, testing or maintaining electronic hardware in aerospace, defence, medical, motorsport or another high‑reliability field
• Demonstrated soldering and rework skill on fine‑pitch surface mount and through‑hole assemblies
• Direct experience manufacturing and testing wiring harnesses and cable assemblies
• Confident with lab instrumentation — oscilloscopes, multimeters, bench supplies, logic analysers — and able to read schematics and wiring diagrams to fault‑find independently
• Disciplined approach to documentation and traceability, including working to written procedures in a controlled environment
• Experience maintaining a lab, workshop or bench environment — tooling, consumables, calibration status and ESD control
• Working effectively both independently and in teams

Bonus experience:

• IPC J-STD-001 and/or IPC-A-610 certification, or an ECSS/NASA equivalent space soldering qualification
• Designing simple PCBs and assemblies in KiCad, Altium or similar — test jigs, break‑out boards, interface adapters — even at a non‑professional level
• Experience with spacecraft or other flight hardware assembly, integration and test
• Experience supporting environmental test campaigns — vibration, thermal vacuum, EMC
• Familiarity with embedded interfaces such as CAN, RS‑422/485, I2C and SPI
• Basic scripting for test automation and data capture
• Inspection techniques such as microscopy or X‑ray of PCB assemblies
• Experience within start up, scale up or small companies

Benefits

What You Actually Get

You won’t get rich quickly. But you’ll get:

Competitive salary – Fair pay for hard work. Commensurate with experience and the impact you’ll have.

Meaningful equity (ESOP) – Real ownership stake. Stock options that matter because you’re joining early enough for them to matter. If we win, you win.

Actual leave – Annual leave plus personal/sick days. Because even warriors need to recover.

Public holidays – All of them.

And freedom. Real freedom to build, decide, and move without waiting for permission. That’s not a benefit you’ll find in