Flight-Ready Space Hardware Design Engineer

Capella Space; Louisville (CO); On-site; USD 146,000 - 192,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical, dental, and 
vi

401(k) matching

Unlimited PTO

Parental/adoption leave

Home technology stipend

Job summary

Capella Space in Louisville, CO is hiring a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer to own full-cycle PCBA designs from concept to flight readiness. You’ll collaborate with RF, mechanical, software, FPGA/SoC, and operations teams to deliver high-reliability, space-ready electronics.

You will guide the Electrical Engineering team on topics, lead design reviews, and mentor engineers while driving test plans, DFM/DFT improvements, and on-time delivery in a fast-paced aerospace environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of experience designing and debugging PCBAs.
• Proficiency in Altium Designer (or similar ECAD tools).
• Hands-on experience with lab instruments (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power analyzers, etc.).
• Solid understanding of digital buses (I2C, SPI, UART, RS422, CAN, USB, PCIe, Ethernet etc.).
• Familiarity with board bring-up, test planning, and design verification workflows.
• Experience interacting with contract manufacturers, supporting DFM reviews, and resolving production issues.
• Strong documentation habits and organizational skills.
• ITAR compliance knowledge and eligibility to work in the U.S.

Responsibilities

• Own the full electrical design lifecycle for complex spaceflight hardware: Concept of operations, requirements engineering, schematic capture, layout, bring-up, test, and manufacturing handoff.
• Develop robust analog/digital designs for mission-critical systems under environmental and performance constraints.
• Organize collaborative cross disciplinary design reviews sharing feedback and shaping solutions with a team of experienced engineers.
• Provide critical input to schedule planning, hardware requirements, and process improvements.
• Lead board-level bring-up and debugging, integrating firmware/software/FPGA with embedded systems.
• Define test plans and verification strategies that meet flight readiness requirements.
• Play a key role in scaling up our manufacturing facility bringing hardware from prototype to low-volume production.
• Collaborate across teams- mechanical, RF, software, FPGA/SoC, and systems to ensure seamless integration.
• Mentor early-career engineers contributing to internal process improvements and elevating the overall quality of the team.
• Engage with external vendors and CMs, ensuring delivery quality, resolving DFM/DFT issues, and ensuring on-time delivery.
• Drive failure analysis and root-cause investigations across flight or test anomalies.

Skills

PCB design

High-speed design

Schematic capture

Documentation

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Master’s degree in electrical engineering or related field

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or related field

Tools

Altium Designer

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Power analyzers

Python

Job description

Capella Space in Louisville, CO is hiring a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer to own full-cycle PCBA designs from concept to flight readiness. You’ll collaborate with RF, mechanical, software, FPGA/SoC, and operations teams to deliver high-reliability, space-ready electronics.

You will guide the Electrical Engineering team on topics, lead design reviews, and mentor engineers while driving test plans, DFM/DFT improvements, and on-time delivery in a fast-paced aerospace environment.