Radiation Metrology and Test Engineer

Cowboy Space Corp.; San Carlos (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) retirement savings plan

Paid time off

10 paid holidays per calendar year

Paid parental leave

Relocation assistance

Lunch in the office

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. in San Carlos, CA seeks a hardware test engineer to build reusable radiation-test infrastructure and measurement systems for space electronics.

You will own a modular motherboard/daughterboard platform for heavy-ion testing, develop instrument control, data processing, and ensure repeatable results across campaigns. This role is onsite in San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA.

Qualifications

• A degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, physics, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience testing electronic hardware under radiation, with an understanding of single-event effects and total ionizing dose.
• Experience designing, bringing up, and debugging PCB-based test hardware, including bias circuits, component interfaces, and electrical measurements.
• Ability to develop maintainable test automation and data-analysis software in Python or a comparable language.
• Practical experience with instruments such as source measure units, oscilloscopes, power supplies, and data-acquisition systems.
• Careful measurement and documentation habits: calibration, setup behavior, raw data preservation, anomaly investigation.

Responsibilities

• Develop reusable test electronics. Design/bring up motherboards and daughterboards for radiation testing; document interfaces for testing new devices.
• Build reliable test automation: instrument control, stimulus generation, data reduction, and configuration preservation.
• Own measurement quality: calibration, uncertainty, noise, timing, and test-system artifacts analysis.
• Prepare and execute radiation campaigns: readiness checks, beam access, facility coordination.
• Turn test runs into engineering evidence: test devices before/during/after exposure and deliver reproducible analyses and reports.
• Sustain the broader test capability: improve benches, data-acquisition tools, and procedures to ease repeatability.

Skills

Radiation testing

PCB test hardware

Python data-analysis

Instrument control

Calibration & documentation

C/C++ embedded

Education

Electrical engineering

Physics

Computer engineering

Tools

Oscilloscope

Source measure units

Data-acquisition systems

Instrument-control libraries

FPGA interfaces

Job description

About Cowboy Space Corp:

Mission
Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Background
Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.

Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.

Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.

This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

The Role

Build the hardware, automation, and measurement systems that let us understand how electronics behave under radiation. You will own reusable radiation test infrastructure, from circuit design and bench checkout through test execution and reproducible results.

Your initial focus will be a modular motherboard/daughterboard platform for heavy-ion testing of individual electronic components. You will develop the supporting instrument control, electrical characterization, event capture, and data processing needed to use that platform across different devices and campaigns.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role. You will work with radiation effects engineers to translate test objectives into validated setups, with avionics designers to reproduce relevant operating conditions, and with test facilities to execute campaigns. Your continuing responsibility will be to extend and maintain the test capability as new components and engineering questions emerge. This role is located onsite in San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA.

Responsibilities

• Develop reusable test electronics. Design and bring up motherboards, device-specific daughterboards, bias and protection circuits, fixtures, and interfaces for component radiation testing. Document the interfaces so new devices can be tested without rebuilding the entire setup.
• Build reliable test automation. Develop software for instrument control, stimulus generation, electrical characterization, event logging, and data reduction. Make runs recoverable and preserve hardware, software, and instrument configurations alongside the measurements.
• Own measurement quality. Establish calibration and verification procedures for the electrical measurement chain. Characterize uncertainty, repeatability, noise, timing, and event-detection limits so the team can distinguish device behavior from test-system artifacts.
• Prepare and execute radiation campaigns. Develop procedures, perform readiness checks, and operate test setups for heavy-ion and other component radiation tests. Coordinate sample preparation, beam access, and facility interfaces with the relevant specialists.
• Make exposure and response data traceable. Confirm required beam and dosimetry information with facility staff, record exposure conditions and device operating states, and correlate those records with electrical measurements and observed events.
• Turn test runs into engineering evidence. Characterize devices before, during, and after exposure as required; investigate unexpected results; and deliver reproducible analysis, clear reports, and documented limitations for review with radiation effects and component engineers.
• Sustain the broader test capability. Improve related characterization benches, data-acquisition tools, fixtures, documentation, and checkout procedures. Use lessons from each campaign to reduce setup errors and make future testing easier to repeat.

Basic Qualifications

• A degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, physics, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience testing electronic hardware under radiation, with an understanding of single-event effects and total ionizing dose.
• Experience designing, bringing up, and debugging PCB-based test hardware, including bias circuits, component interfaces, and electrical measurements.
• Ability to develop maintainable test automation and data-analysis software in Python or a comparable language.
• Practical experience with instruments such as source measure units, oscilloscopes, power supplies, and data-acquisition systems.
• Careful measurement and documentation habits: checking calibration and setup behavior, preserving raw data, investigating anomalies, and explaining the limits of a result.

Preferred Qualifications

• Heavy-ion or proton testing at external facilities, including device preparation and beamline setup.
• High-voltage or power-semiconductor characterization, including protection and recovery during testing.
• Embedded C/C++, microcontroller or FPGA interfaces, and instrument-control libraries.
• Radiation test methods and standards, uncertainty analysis, or development of reusable test platforms.

Why This Role Is Different

• A reusable component-test platform that has been checked out with representative devices, demonstrated its measurement and event-capture behavior, and produced a traceable radiation-test dataset. Other engineers should be able to reproduce its setup, understand its limits, and extend it to the next device.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $165,000 - $190,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

• Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
• Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per calendar year
• Paid parental leave
• Relocation assistance if applicable
• Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks

ITAR Requirements

• Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITAR here.

Disclaimer

This job description is a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the job and position. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties and responsibilities. Contents are subject to change at Cowboy Space Corp.’s discretion.

Cowboy Space Corp. is an equal employment opportunity employer. We consider individuals for employment or promotion according to their skills, abilities and experience. Cowboy Space Corp. is committed to complying with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, age, national origin, ancestry, physical, mental or developmental disability, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and medical conditions relating to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), veteran status, military status, marital or registered domestic partnership status, medical condition (including cancer or genetic characteristics), genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, as well as any other category protected by federal, state or local laws.