PAT Controls Engineer for Space Optical Links

Amazon; Redmond (WA); On-site; USD 117,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon LEO seeks a PAT Engineer to develop, test, and validate pointing, acquisition, and tracking systems for free-space optical links across the constellation. You will work across FPGA verification, hardware integration, and model-based design within the OISL Electrical Engineering team, focusing on PAT/controls and collaborating with EE and mechanical teams.

Candidates should have a BS in electrical engineering or equivalent and experience in hardware-adjacent controls, MATLAB/Simulink, and

Qualifications

• BS degree in electrical engineering or equivalent.
• Experience in hardware-adjacent controls, test, or systems engineering.
• MATLAB/Simulink proficiency — comfortable running models, interpreting results, building test cases, and debugging issues.
• Experience analyzing test or flight data to identify trends, anomalies, and correlations.
• Reading schematics and understanding digital/analog signal interfaces.
• Experience with lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, signal generators, spectrum analyzers).
• Experience with control system fundamentals — feedback loops, transfer functions, stability concepts.
• Experience with fixed-point concepts — word length, fraction length, overflow, quantization error.
• Experience with version control (Git).
• Experience working across disciplines — interfacing with EE, FPGA, and mechanical teams.

Responsibilities

• Analyze flight telemetry data and compare against simulation predictions to identify discrepancies.
• Maintain simulation environments to reproduce flight scenarios and validate model fidelity.
• Correlate flight data trends with model behaviors and hardware characteristics to identify root causes.
• Support production and onboard failure investigations, review data, and help debug board-level issues.
• Develop and maintain PAT FPGA test vectors; run MIL/SIL/HIL verifications.
• Contribute to trade studies for data converter selection and signal chain architecture.
• Document test procedures, results, RCA findings, and configuration management records.

Skills

Control systems fundamentals

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Flight data analysis

Reading schematics

Model-based design

Education

BS degree in electrical engineering or equivalent

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

Git

Lab instrumentation

FPGA tools (Vivado/ModelSim)

Scripting for test automation

Job description

Amazon LEO seeks a PAT Engineer to develop, test, and validate pointing, acquisition, and tracking systems for free-space optical links across the constellation. You will work across FPGA verification, hardware integration, and model-based design within the OISL Electrical Engineering team, focusing on PAT/controls and collaborating with EE and mechanical teams.

Candidates should have a BS in electrical engineering or equivalent and experience in hardware-adjacent controls, MATLAB/Simulink, and