Chief Engineer - Electrical Engineering

Firefly Aerospace; Cedar Park (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace, headquartered in north Austin, Texas, seeks an Electrical Engineering Chief Engineer to lead the design, development, integration, and verification of spaceborne electrical and avionics systems. You will be the technical authority for spacecraft electrical architectures across multiple programs and guide teams to deliver flight-ready hardware.

You will drive new product development, prototyping, and provide oversight to ensure design maturity, compliance with space standards,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Computer, Aerospace, or closely related field.
• 15+ years in electrical/avionics engineering for aerospace systems with leadership responsibility.
• Experience as technical authority on flight hardware programs, owning architecture through development and flight.
• Strong depth in spacecraft/launch vehicle power, data handling, buses, harnessing.
• Proven experience with EEE parts selection, radiation effects, and space environmental qualification.
• Track record leading multi-disciplinary teams and balancing performance with cost/schedule.
• Experience taking designs from concept to flight qualification, including PCB and firmware.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with leadership and external customers.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment across engineering disciplines.
• Master’s or PhD preferred; modular avionics architectures and reuse experience.
• Hands-on board-level design, FPGA/ASIC, harness analysis.
• Experience supporting on-orbit operations and post-flight analysis.
• Familiarity with configuration and requirements management in flight hardware.

Responsibilities

• Own the electrical/avionics baseline and architectural direction across hardware, firmware, harnessing, and vehicle systems.
• Define spacecraft and launch vehicle electrical architectures: power, data handling, interfaces, harnessing.
• Establish design standards, processes, and best practices for electrical engineering.
• Manage system and subsystem electrical requirements with traceability, verification, and validation.
• Lead design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR) and risk assessments; approve maturity.
• Drive modular architecture to maximize reuse across vehicles.
• Provide direction to teams; review artifacts, analyses, schematics, ICDs, power budgets, test plans.
• Lead trade studies to optimize power architectures, redundancy, radiation tolerance, and derating.
• Ensure compliance with environmental requirements and EEE parts selection/derating.
• Define integration and test strategies including functional testing, hardware-in-the-loop, environmental tests.
• Support failure analysis, anomaly resolution, and root-cause actions.
• Collaborate with Systems, Mechanical, Software, RF, and Mission Assurance teams.
• Support roadmaps, IRAD direction, and proposals; mentor engineers.
• Pursue continuous process/tool/DFM/DFT improvements.

Skills

Leadership

Systems engineering

Power systems

Avionics data handling

Requirements management

Technical communication

Flight hardware

Security clearance readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/ aerospace engineering

Master’s degree preferred

Ph.D. preferred

Tools

SpaceWire

CAN

MIL-STD-1553

Ethernet

ECSS

Job description

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Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

Summary

The Electrical Engineering Chief Engineer will provide technical leadership for the design, development, integration, and verification of spaceborne electrical and avionics systems. In this role, you will serve as the technical authority for spacecraft electrical architectures across multiple space programs. You will define component and system level electrical requirements, guide multi-disciplinary engineering teams, ensure design integrity through all lifecycle phases, and interface directly with internal leadership to achieve mission and business objectives. As a leader in technology development, you will be responsible for visionary new product development including research and development into emerging technology, prototyping new designs, generating basic software and firmware as needed to create proof of concept, and providing technical oversight to the product design team to develop concepts into flight qualified hardware solutions.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will work closely with the Director of Electrical Engineering, technical leads, Systems Engineering, and Program Management to deliver robust, flight-ready electrical systems.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical baseline and architectural direction for electrical and avionics systems across Hardware, Firmware, Harnessing, Launch Vehicle Systems, and Spacecraft Systems.
• Define and own spacecraft and launch vehicle electrical architectures, including power generation/distribution/storage, command and data handling, communication interfaces, and harnessing.
• Establish, maintain, and enforce electrical engineering design standards, processes, and best practices.
• Lead the development, allocation, and management of system and subsystem electrical requirements, ensuring traceability, verification, and validation.
• Lead and chair major design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR) and technical risk assessments; sign off on design maturity and readiness.
• Drive the common modular architecture effort to maximize reuse and commonality across launch vehicles and spacecraft.
• Provide technical direction and oversight to electrical, power, avionics, FPGA/ASIC, firmware, and harness teams; review and approve key design artifacts, analyses, schematics, ICDs, power budgets, and test plans.
• Lead trade studies (power architectures, redundancy, component selection, radiation tolerance, derating, thermal/electrical interfaces) to optimize performance, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Ensure compliance with space environmental requirements (radiation, EMI/EMC, thermal, vacuum, launch loads) and guide EEE parts selection, qualification, and derating.
• Define and guide integration and test strategies, including functional testing, hardware-in-the-loop, environmental qualification (vibration, shock, TVAC, EMI), and system-level verification.
• Support failure analysis, anomaly resolution, and root-cause/corrective action during development, integration, test, and on-orbit operations.
• Collaborate closely with Systems Engineering, Mechanical, Software, RF, GNC, Mission Assurance, and other disciplines to ensure balanced, integrated vehicle designs.
• Support department management with product/technology roadmaps, IRAD direction, proposal technical volumes, BOEs, risk assessments, and new business capture.
• Mentor and develop engineers at all levels, promoting rigorous engineering practices and a culture of technical excellence.
• Continuously improve internal processes, tools, analysis methods, and design-for-manufacturing/test practices.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in electrical or avionics engineering for complex aerospace systems (launch vehicles and/or spacecraft), including significant technical leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience as technical authority or chief/lead engineer on flight hardware programs, owning architecture and design integrity through development, integration, test, and flight.
• Strong technical depth in spacecraft/launch vehicle power systems, avionics/data handling (including common buses such as SpaceWire, CAN, MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet), harnessing, and related disciplines.
• Proven experience with EEE parts selection and derating, radiation effects (TID, SEE) and mitigation, requirements management, and space environmental qualification.
• Track record leading multi-disciplinary teams, conducting trade studies, resolving complex technical issues, and balancing technical performance with cost and schedule constraints.
• Experience taking designs from concept through high TRL / flight qualification, including PCB assemblies, firmware, and system-level integration and test.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to prepare and present complex technical material to engineering teams, leadership, and external customers.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment and collaborate across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Master’s Degree or Ph.D. preferred.
• Direct experience with modular avionics architectures and design-for-reuse across multiple vehicle platforms.
• Hands-on background in board-level design, FPGA/ASIC development, or harness design and analysis.
• Experience supporting on-orbit operations, anomaly resolution, and post-flight analysis.
• Familiarity with configuration management, requirements management tools, and technical baseline control in a flight hardware environment.
• Prior experience providing technical content for proposals and supporting new business capture.
• Knowledge of relevant industry standards (MIL-STD, ECSS, NASA, or equivalent) and best practices for space electrical systems.
• Ability and willingness to obtain a security clearance if required.