Senior Spacecraft Electrical Architect & Lead Engineer

Firefly Aerospace; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace in Austin, TX seeks an Electrical Engineering Chief Engineer to provide technical leadership for design, development, integration and verification of spaceborne electrical and avionics systems. You will act as the technical authority for spacecraft electrical architectures across multiple programs, defining requirements and guiding teams to flight-ready hardware.

This hands-on leadership role requires mentoring engineers, chairing reviews, and driving standardization, reuse,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer/Aerospace Engineering or related field.
• 15 years of progressive experience in electrical or avionics engineering for aerospace systems.
• Technical authority or chief engineer on flight hardware programs owning architecture and design integrity through development, integration, test and flight.
• Strong depth in spacecraft/launch vehicle power systems, avionics, data handling and related bus standards (SpaceWire, CAN, MIL-STD-1553).
• Proven experience leading multi-disciplinary teams and balancing technical performance with cost and schedule.
• Experience taking designs from concept to high TRL flight qualification including PCB, firmware and system integration/test.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for leadership and external customers.
• Willingness to obtain security clearance if required.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical baseline and architectural direction for electrical and avionics systems across Hardware, Firmware, Harnessing, Launch Vehicle, and Spacecraft Systems.
• Define and own spacecraft and launch vehicle electrical architectures including power generation/distribution/storage, command and data handling, interfaces and harnessing.
• Establish and enforce electrical engineering design standards, processes and best practices.
• Lead the development, allocation, and management of system and subsystem electrical requirements with traceability, verification, and validation.
• Lead and chair major design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR) and risk assessments; sign off on design maturity.
• Drive the common modular architecture to maximize reuse across launch vehicles and spacecraft.
• Provide technical direction and oversight to electrical power, avionics, FPGA/ASIC, firmware and harness teams; review ICTs, schematics, power budgets, test plans.
• Lead trade studies on power architectures, redundancy, radiation tolerance, derating, thermal/electrical interfaces.
• Ensure compliance with space environmental requirements, radiation, EMI/EMC, and qualification/derating of EEE parts.
• Define and guide integration and test strategies (F/T testing, hardware-in-the-loop, TVAC, vibration, TVAC, EMI, system verification).
• Support failure analysis, anomaly resolution, and root-cause corrective actions during development, integration, and on-orbit operations.
• Collaborate with Systems, Mechanical, Software, RF, GNC, Mission Assurance to ensure balanced vehicle designs.
• Mentor engineers, promote rigorous engineering practices and a culture of technical excellence.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Technical leadership

Spacecraft power systems

System integration

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering

Master's degree or PhD preferred

Job description

Firefly Aerospace in Austin, TX seeks an Electrical Engineering Chief Engineer to provide technical leadership for design, development, integration and verification of spaceborne electrical and avionics systems. You will act as the technical authority for spacecraft electrical architectures across multiple programs, defining requirements and guiding teams to flight-ready hardware.

This hands-on leadership role requires mentoring engineers, chairing reviews, and driving standardization, reuse,