Senior Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Engineer

Varda Space Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 203,000; Full time

Job summary

Varda Space Industries seeks a Senior Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Development Engineer to design and deliver flight-critical electrical hardware for satellite bus, reentry vehicle, and payloads. You will own your hardware domain from schematic capture through flight qualification, defining requirements and ensuring manufacturability.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to address system-level impacts, establish safe operating criteria, and support mission operations.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering required.
• 5+ years designing electronics hardware for aerospace/high-reliability industries.
• Experience moving complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly.
• Advanced PCB design, signal integrity, power/grounding, EMC expertise.
• Experience with Python, MATLAB or similar scripting for data analysis.
• Experience with on-board and harness communication protocols such as SPI, RS-422, 1000BASE-T.

Responsibilities

• PCB design at all lifecycle stages from schematic to testing.
• Support avionics architecture trade studies and component selection.
• Act as avionics SME for satellite, reentry vehicle, and payload hardware.
• Collaborate with flight software, thermal, GNC, and structures teams.
• Own product acceptance and qualification testing for space environments.
• Define system-level integration test plans for vehicle-level checks.
• Perform root-cause analysis on test failures and mitigate flight risks.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote best practices.

Skills

PCB design

Signal integrity

Power electronics

Python MATLAB

Hardware analysis

Test equipment

Schematic/PCB bring-up

Education

B.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering

Tools

Altium

KiCad

Job description

Varda Space Industries seeks a Senior Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Development Engineer to design and deliver flight-critical electrical hardware for satellite bus, reentry vehicle, and payloads. You will own your hardware domain from schematic capture through flight qualification, defining requirements and ensuring manufacturability.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to address system-level impacts, establish safe operating criteria, and support mission operations.