Senior Radiation Effects Engineer

CesiumAstro, Inc.; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Health, dental, vision

Retirement plans

Job summary

CesiumAstro, Inc. is seeking a Senior Radiation Effects Engineer in Austin, TX, to lead radiation hardness assurance for satellite and space hardware. The role involves environment analysis, testing, risk management, and roadmap development with close collaboration across hardware, software, and firmware teams.

The candidate will present design reviews, contribute to proposals, and mentor the radiation effects team, leveraging 5+ years in space products and strong communication skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science or higher in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of space product experience.
• Direct experience with radiation environments, testing, and SEE analysis.
• Experience with automotive/high-volume commercial parts in radiation environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own Radiation Hardness Assurance plan for LEO and beyond.
• Simulate radiation environments for various orbits (OMERE).
• Plan and conduct radiation tests on components and CesiumAstro products.
• Predict upset rates using environment simulations and test data.
• Advise hardware/software/firmware teams on radiation-tolerant practices.
• Digest customer requirements to shape radiation roadmap.

Skills

Radiation effects analysis

Space industry experience

Python scripting

Proposal writing

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Physics or related field

Tools

OMERE

FASTRAD

Job description

Please Note: To conform with the United States Government Space Technology Export Regulations, the applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., conditional resident, asylee or refugee (protected individuals as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

At CesiumAstro, we are developers and pioneers of out-of-the-box communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. We take pride in our dynamic and cross-functional work environment, which allows us to learn, develop, and engage across our organization. If you are looking for hands-on, interactive, and autonomous work, CesiumAstro is the place for you. We are actively seeking passionate, collaborative, energetic, and forward-thinking individuals to join our team.

We are looking to add a Senior Radiation Effects Engineer to our team. If you enjoy working in a startup environment and are passionate about developing the next generation of space systems, we would like to hear from you.

In this position, you will be responsible for key aspects of the company’s radiation hardness assurance program. CesiumAstro’s products address market segments that include high-volume LEO applications as well as higher orbits; as such, the successful candidate will have extensive industry experience using modern, cutting-edge devices in space applications. Technical work will include environment analysis, testing, risk management, and product road-mapping. More detailed responsibilities are listed below.

The successful candidate will also present engineering design review materials to our customers and executive team, as well as participate in proposal-writing efforts. As such, excellent written and verbal communication skills are required.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own key aspects of the company’s Radiation Hardness Assurance Plan for LEO orbits and beyond.
• Simulate radiation environments for various orbits using tools such as OMERE.
• Plan and conduct radiation tests on components and CesiumAstro’s products, including proton, heavy ion, and total dose testing.
• Predict upset rates by combining environmental simulations with test data.
• Advise hardware engineers on part selection.
• Advise software and firmware engineers on best practices for “software radiation tolerance” such as EDAC and watchdog timer.
• Perform system-level analysis of radiation risk.
• Participate in design reviews for hardware, software, and firmware to ensure radiation reliability.
• Digest requirements from potential customers to shape our product-level radiation roadmap.
• Keep up with the latest industry practices, standards, and requirements.
• Help to grow the radiation effects team via interviews, training, and mentorship.
• Advise Business Development on radiation effects for bids and proposals.

JOB REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor of Science (BS) or higher degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or similar degree from an accredited university.
• Minimum of 5 years of space product experience.
• Direct experience performing many or all of the responsibilities listed above.
• Direct experience working with automotive and high volume commercial grade parts in radiation environments.
• Good understanding of the radiation physics relevant to electronic components.
• Excellent written and spoken communication ability.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Experience with ray tracing tools such as FASTRAD
• Experience with radiation susceptibility of RF components including III-V transistors (GaAs, Gan)
• Specialization of SEE analysis and test of complex digital devices such as FPGAs, processors, and memories (RAM and NVM)
• Working knowledge of Electronic Circuit Theory.
• Basic programming and scripting, such as Python.
• Managing databases of component test data.

CesiumAstro considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, education/training, and key skills. Full-time employment offers include company stock options and a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, life, disability and retirement plans.

CesiumAstro is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard torace, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Please note: CesiumAstro does not accept unsolicited resumes from contract agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited resumes submitted to our website or to CesiumAstro team members will be considered property of CesiumAstro, and we will not be obligated to pay any referral fees.