Avionics Architect

Industrious Ventures; Town of Belgium (WI); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Industrious Ventures in the Town of Belgium, Wisconsin, is seeking an Avionics Architect to oversee the avionics architecture of satellite projects. This role bridges hardware, firmware, and systems engineering, ensuring seamless integration across multiple missions.

The ideal candidate will have a MSc or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, with at least 3 years of industry experience. Responsibilities include leading technical discussions, verifying satellite budgets, and collaborating with systems engineers. Strong communication skills and the ability to work autonomously are essential.

Qualifications

• 3+ years experience in the Aerospace industry or relevant industry.
• Ability to lead technical discussions and communicate architectural decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to drive designs to completion in full autonomy.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural trade-off studies and technical design choices.
• Verify satellite budgets and ensure inter-compatibility of sub-systems.
• Collaborate with systems engineers to derive avionics requirements.

Skills

Technical leadership

Aerospace engineering

Communication skills

Quick learning

Education

MSc or PhD in Aerospace Engineering or related field

Job description

Role overview

As an Avionics Architect, you will be a key technical authority working on satellite projects, responsible for defining and owning the end-to-end avionics architecture of our satellite, including platforms and payload. You will work at the intersection of hardware, firmware, and systems engineering, bridging functional requirements and physical implementation across multiple concurrent missions. The Avionics architect is involved during the full satellite development cycle, from mission analysis (typically power budget and data budget), satellite architecture design to satellite validation and supporting the satellite operators.

Key activities

• Lead architectural trade‑off studies and technical design choices, balancing performance, mass, power budget, reliability.
• Verify satellite budgets (power budget, data budget…).
• Ensure inter‑compatibility (data, power, EMC/EMI) of all satellite sub‑systems.
• Collaborate with systems engineers to derive avionics and sub‑systems requirements from mission‑level specifications and ensure full requirements traceability.
• Support satellite end‑to‑end validation & verification team.
• Support satellite operators.
• Establish avionics design standards, and architectural guidelines reusable across the platform family.
• Drive architectural design reviews (PDR, CDR) and act as a technical reference point for internal and external stakeholders.

Must have

• MSc or PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electro‑Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 3+ years experience in the Aerospace industry or relevant industry.
• Ability to lead technical discussions, structure trade‑offs clearly, and communicate architectural decisions to multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated ability to work across the team and company to drive designs to completion in full autonomy.
• Ability to learn quickly.
• Good communication skills.
• Fluency in English.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of spacecraft avionics subsystems (OBC, PCDU, AOCS, telemetry & telecommand).
• Understanding of space‑grade communication protocols and bus architectures (SpaceWire, CAN, RS‑422/485, Ethernet, etc.).
• Experience with the full satellite development lifecycle: from requirements capture to integration, test, and operations.
• Experience as system engineer, used to work in multi‑disciplinary team.
• Experience in leading new projects starting from scratch.
• Proficiency with common industry mechanical/electronic design software.