Avionics Engineer (C&DH)

Associates Systems LLC; Titusville (FL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Associates Systems LLC at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is seeking an experienced Avionics Engineer (C&DH) to support analysis, integration, and verification of flight avionics and C&DH subsystems for spacecraft and other flight systems.

The role bridges flight hardware with embedded software interfaces across flight computers, data buses, sensor and actuator interfaces, communications, telemetry, and power and thermal systems throughout the spacecraft lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of professional engineering experience with spacecraft avionics, embedded electronics, C&DH systems, flight computers, or related flight systems.
• Strong understanding of microcontrollers and microprocessors (e.g., ARM, RISC-V, LEON/SPARC, PowerPC), FPGA interfacing, and digital/analog circuit design.
• Experience with spacecraft data buses, command and telemetry systems, avionics interfaces, or flight computer architectures.
• Experience developing, reviewing, or executing verification and validation activities for flight avionics or C&DH systems.

Responsibilities

• Analyze, evaluate, and verify avionics and C&DH architectures, including SBCs, payload controllers, PDU, and mass memory storage.
• Validate spacecraft communication buses and telemetry and command protocols.
• Review and assess avionics and C&DH requirements, verification methods, and verification evidence.
• Evaluate flight avionics designs, interfaces, schematics, documentation, and test results for performance and risk.
• Analyze interfaces between C&DH and other spacecraft subsystems, including power, thermal, GNC, propulsion, payloads, and flight software.
• Support integration, functional, qualification, and acceptance testing of flight avionics and C&DH hardware and software.
• Evaluate test results and correlate analytical or simulation results with hardware and system performance.
• Participate in anomaly and failure investigations, including root-cause and corrective actions.
• Communicate findings and risks to engineering and program leadership.
• Support mission preparation and operations activities involving C&DH systems.

Skills

Microcontrollers

FPGA Design

Embedded systems

Spacecraft data buses

Education

Electrical Engineering

Tools

Altium Designer

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

DOORS

Jama

Git

Job description

Avionics Engineer (C&DH)

Onsite Kennedy Space Center / Florida - No hybrid or remote is available. NASA or AEROSPACE Exp US Citizens or Perm Residents Only These are immediate interviews for the right candidates.

We are seeking an experienced Avionics Engineer (C&DH) to support the analysis, integration, and verification of flight avionics and Command and Data Handling (C&DH) subsystems for spacecraft and other flight systems.

The Avionics Engineer bridges flight hardware architecture with embedded software interfaces across flight computers, data buses, sensor and actuator interfaces, communications, telemetry, and associated electrical systems throughout the spacecraft lifecycle.

The engineer will evaluate avionics architectures, technical analyses, verification approaches, test results, and system interfaces to identify technical risks and support sound engineering and mission decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze, evaluate, and verify avionics and C&DH architectures, including single-board computers (SBCs), payload controllers, power distribution units, and mass memory storage systems.
• Validate spacecraft communication buses and telemetry and command protocols.
• Review and assess avionics and C&DH requirements, verification methods, and verification evidence to ensure system-level requirements are adequately demonstrated.
• Evaluate flight avionics designs, analyses, interface definitions, schematics, technical documentation, and test results to assess performance, compliance, and technical risk.
• Analyze interfaces between C&DH systems and other spacecraft subsystems, including electrical power, thermal, guidance, navigation and control, propulsion, payloads, and flight software.
• Support integration, functional, qualification, and acceptance testing of flight avionics and C&DH hardware and software.
• Evaluate test results and correlate analytical or simulation results with hardware and system-level performance.
• Participate in avionics and C&DH anomaly and failure investigations, including root‑cause analysis, contributing‑cause assessment, and evaluation of corrective actions.
• Support technical reviews and communicate findings, risks, uncertainties, and recommendations to engineering and program leadership.
• Support spacecraft mission preparation and operations activities involving command, telemetry, communications, and C&DH systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of professional engineering experience with spacecraft avionics, embedded electronics, C&DH systems, flight computers, or related flight systems.
• Strong understanding of microcontrollers and microprocessors (e.g., ARM, RISC-V, LEON/SPARC, PowerPC), FPGA interfacing, and digital/analog circuit design.
• Experience with spacecraft data buses, command and telemetry systems, avionics interfaces, or flight computer architectures.
• Experience developing, reviewing, or executing verification and validation activities for flight avionics or C&DH systems.
• Ability to analyze complex technical information, identify system-level risks and interfaces, and communicate technically defensible recommendations.

Preferred Software and Technical Tooling

Candidates should possess hands‑on proficiency in a selection of the following tools and environments:

• Electrical Design: Altium Designer, Cadence OrCAD/Allegro, Mentor Graphics PADS/Xpedition, or equivalent.
• Modeling and Simulation: MATLAB/Simulink, LTspice, PSpice, Ansys SIwave, or equivalent.
• Programming and Data Analysis: Python, C/C++, Bash, or equivalent programming environments. Experience may include automated test bench control, telemetry parsing, data analysis, embedded systems, flight software interfaces, or device drivers.
• Requirements and Configuration Management: Git/GitLab/GitHub, JIRA, Confluence, DOORS, Jama, or equivalent tools.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), automated test systems, or other avionics verification environments.
• Experience with spacecraft telemetry and command analysis, data processing, or test-data visualization.
• Experience developing or maintaining requirements traceability and verification databases.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting flight hardware from concept through launch and on-orbit operations.
• Experience with spacecraft avionics integration, system-level testing, qualification, or acceptance testing.
• Experience with spacecraft command and telemetry systems, flight computers, data buses, mass memory, or payload interfaces.
• Experience working across multiple spacecraft engineering disciplines and evaluating system-level interfaces and interactions.
• Experience with technical reviews, anomaly investigations, failure analysis, or flight hardware acceptance.
• Experience working in an integrated engineering environment with hardware, software, systems, and test teams.

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