Lead Electronic Development Engineer, Gateways (Starlink)

Linuxconfig; Bastrop (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Lead Hardware Development Engineer (Starlink) in Bastrop, TX to guide a small team in creating high-volume, reliable consumer electronics for gateway systems. You will own the hardware ecosystem from concept to production, setting technical direction and mentoring engineers across multiple disciplines.

The role emphasizes leadership, full lifecycle hardware design, and close collaboration with antenna, software, mechanical, and manufacturing teams to meet aggressive

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or physics.
• 3+ years of professional experience with hardware design/development or electronics test engineering.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 3–5 engineers to rapidly design, develop, and test highly reliable electronics for Gateway systems.
• Drive electrical architecture, specification, component selection, PCB design, verification and debugging.
• Coach direct reports to own products and enable empowered decision making.
• Collaborate with antenna, software, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing and production test teams.

Skills

Team leadership

Hardware design

PCB design

Mixed-signal design

Python/C/C++

Networking concepts

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or physics

Tools

Altium Designer

Oscilloscope

Signal integrity tools

Lab measurement equipment

Job description

Lead Hardware Development Engineer (Starlink)

Bastrop, TX

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal ofenabling human life on Mars.

Starlink believes in providing fast, reliable internet to serve populations with little or no connectivity. We design, build, launch, and operate the world’s largest constellation of satellites, enabling us to operate a global internet network unbounded by traditional ground infrastructure limitations. The root of SpaceX’s success so far lies in our mission to keep all engineering and production in-house, which enables a tight feedback loop, nimble decision-making, and speedy deliverables. With millions of daily users worldwide already online, Starlink is truly a game changer and levels the playing field for those who were previously unconnected.

We are developing cutting-edge, highly reliable, and high-volume electronics for communicating with our constellation of satellites and are looking for outstanding engineers to join our team.

The Starlink Product Development Team is responsible for the development of customer-facing products which are manufactured in the range of many millions per year, including phased array satellite dishes, high speed WiFi routers, and power supplies.

As a Lead Hardware Engineer on the Starlink team, you will lead a team of 3–5 engineers, and own the full ecosystem and roadmap of our consumer electronics from start to finish. You will set the technical direction, grow the engineers on your team into product owners, and work regularly with partner teams across antenna, software, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing, and production test to take this hardware from initial concept through full-scale production.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead a team of 3-5 engineers to rapidly design, develop, and test highly reliable electronics for our Gateway systems
• Drive electrical architecture, specification, component selection, circuit board design, implementation, verification, board bring-up, and debugging
• Optimize existing designs to improve reliability and reduce production and field defects
• Implement automated design validation test assets to speed up development cycles
• Hire, coach, and develop direct reports so they can own their products and make decisions without waiting on you
• Develop and train direct reports to enable product ownership and empowered decision making
• Partner with antenna, software, mechanical, networking, thermal, manufacturing and production test teams

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or physics
• 3+ years of professional experience with hardware design/development or electronics test engineering

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 6+ years of professional experience rapidly designing and delivering highly-reliable products
• 6+ years of electronic product experience designing hardware from concept through production; strong emphasis on full life cycle development of new hardware products and not small incremental updates to legacy hardware
• 6+ years of experience designing and implementing mixed-signal circuit boards from concept through production using processors, FPGAs, Ethernet, multi-GHz Serdes, DRAM interfaces (DDR4), I2C, SPI, operational amplifiers, analog to digital and digital to analog converters, and power supply components
• 6+ years of professional experience testing, troubleshooting, and debugging electronics
• Strong understanding of computer networking and interfaces (10/100/400/800G networking/Tbps switches)
• Strong understanding of optical networking architectures and fundamentals
• Strong understanding of computers and programming languages (Python, C/C++)
• Experience in desktop/server Linux and embedded operating systems
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly cross-functional role
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission critical deadlines
• Ability to travel to other sites (Hawthorne, CA and Redmond, WA) up to 20%
• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here .

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affi… .

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For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in SpaceX’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.