Principal Electrical Engineer, AI Satellites (Starmind)

SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is developing Starmind, a constellation of satellites capturing solar energy to power AI compute. As Principal Electrical Hardware Engineer, you own the hardware lifecycle for high-performance compute electronics, power systems, and networking designed for the space environment.

You will collaborate across mechanical, thermal, software, and test teams, drive design trades, selection, bring-up, and on-orbit performance, and deliver reliable, testable hardware capable of operating in

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline (Electrical/Mechanical/Electrical Hardware)
• Experience with space-grade hardware and high-reliability electronics preferred.
• Strong experience in power, RF, digital/analog mixed-signal design.

Responsibilities

• Rapidly develop high-reliability electronics for satellites and spacecraft.
• Drive system trades, requirements capture, component selection, analysis, schematic capture, PCB layout, prototyping, hardware bring-up, debugging, documentation, manufacturing, test, and on-orbit performance of complex electrical designs.
• Get hands-on and support hardware through production, satellite integration, and flight.
• Determine layer stackup, perform component package selection, routing feasibility studies, and signal routing of digital, analog, RF, and power conversion of PCBs.
• Library creation and maintenance.
• Create and release documentation for fabrication of PCBs.
• Collaborate with internal teams and PCB vendors to continually improve design rules, constraints and design for test and manufacture guidelines.
• Work closely with engineers from adjacent disciplines to deliver tightly integrated, high-performance hardware.
• Challenge assumptions, question requirements, learn from mistakes, and approach problems with an open mind.

Skills

High-reliability electronics

Power electronics

RF design

Mixed-signal design

PCB layout

Space-grade hardware

Hardware bring-up

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Principal Electrical Engineer, AI Satellites (Starmind)

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.

PRINCIPAL ELECTRICAL HARDWARE ENGINEER, AI SATELLITES (STARMIND)

SpaceX is leveraging its experience deploying and operating the world’s largest satellite constellation to develop Starmind, a new constellation of satellites capturing solar energy in space to power low-cost, high-performance AI compute for Earth. Realizing this vision demands highly reliable, high performance electrical hardware ranging from power electronics, high speed digital systems, mixed signal designs, robust avionics, networking, and custom compute electronics. These systems must operate in the extreme environment of space while delivering the connectivity, control, power distribution, and processing needed for orbital AI inference.

The Starmind team designs, builds, and operates the orbital compute fabric of the future. We develop nearly every key piece of technology in house – from the satellites’ flight computers and power systems to the fully custom compute electronics, memory, and networking that form the brain of our on-orbit data centers. As an engineer on the Starmind Payload Engineering team, you’ll have ownership over the entire life-cycle of the hardware that enables advanced on-orbit AI processing and data center workloads. Your work sits at the intersection of electrical, mechanical, thermal, and software engineering. The Payload team is responsible for the design of industry-leading compute electronics, memory, and networking in order to achieve required domain sizes and processing workloads.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Rapidly develop high-reliability electronics for satellites and spacecraft.
• Drive system trades, requirements capture, component selection, analysis, schematic capture, PCB layout, prototyping, hardware bring-up, debugging, documentation, manufacturing, test, and on-orbit performance of complex electrical designs
• Get hands-on and support hardware through production, satellite integration, and flight
• Determine layer stackup, perform component package selection, component placement, routing feasibility studies, and signal routing of digital, analog, RF, and power conversion of PCBs
• Library creation and maintenance
• Create and release documentation for fabrication of PCBs
• Collaborate with internal teams and PCB vendors to continually improve design rules, constraints and design for test and manufacture guidelines
• Work closely with engineers from adjacent disciplines (mechanical, thermal, software, test engineering, supply chain, silicon design, etc.) to deliver tightly integrated, high-performance hardware
• Challenge assumptions, question requirements, learn from your mistakes, and approach problems with an open mind

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s