Software Engineer I: Payload Engineer

Lodestar; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 99,000 - 133,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity incentives

Flexible PTO

Medical, dental & vision coverage

401(k) with company match

Job summary

Lodestar seeks a Payload Engineer I to join the CORONA program in Los Angeles. You will own the payload engineering model from design to testing, coordinating optics, mechanical, avionics, and software, and advancing it through milestones before gate reviews with USSF, Space Systems Command, and AFRL.

This early‑career role emphasizes hands‑on build experience and rapid skill growth, with an extreme ownership culture and opportunities to progress alongside senior engineers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in relevant engineering, physics, optics, or CS.
• 0–2 years of professional experience; early‑career candidates encouraged.
• Hands‑on building experience with real projects preferred, not just grades.

Responsibilities

• Own the payload engineering model day to day from requirements through testing.
• Develop and specify payload, autonomy, effector, power, thermal and pointing requirements.
• Prepare SRR, PDR and CDR packages and maintain verification matrix across gates.
• Integrate the engineering model with effector, edge compute avionics, and multimodal sensors.
• Perform optical alignment, testing, and iterate designs based on results.
• Conduct hardware-in-the-loop testing and validate perception to pointing loop.
• Support environmental qualification and pre/post-test functional checks.
• Deliver end-to-end ground demonstration on a payload‑in‑the‑loop setup.
• Produce customer-facing test reports, qualification dossiers and performance assessments.

Skills

Python

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, Physics, Optics or Photonics, Robotics, Computer Science

Job description

About Lodestar

Lodestar's mission is to develop the first \"Protect and Defend\" capability for high-value space assets in orbit. Our flagship product MITHRIL is the critical hardware & software necessary to augment any off-the-shelf spacecraft with the ability to autonomously detect, characterise, and reversibly neutralise orbital threats. By building on the proven space heritage of our best-in-class satellite-bus partners and fully integrating MITHRIL as a single platform, we deliver a fully autonomous end-to-end protection spacecraft service.

About Lodestar

Lodestar's mission is to develop the first \"Protect and Defend\" capability for high-value space assets in orbit. Our flagship product MITHRIL is the critical hardware & software necessary to augment any off-the-shelf spacecraft with the ability to autonomously detect, characterise, and reversibly neutralise orbital threats. By building on the proven space heritage of our best-in-class satellite-bus partners and fully integrating MITHRIL as a single platform, we deliver a fully autonomous end-to-end protection spacecraft service.

About the Job

As a Payload Engineer I at Lodestar, you'll be joining the payload team as a primary delivery engineer on CORONA, a SpaceWERX Direct-to-Phase-II program to take an integrated autonomous sensing and effector payload from laboratory breadboard to qualified engineering model. You'll help design, build, integrate and test the payload across optics, mechanical, avionics and software. Working alongside the Founding Engineer and senior systems, GNC, electronics and optics engineers, you'll take the engineering model through 18 months and nine milestones, with design reviews in front of USSF, Space Systems Command and AFRL at each gate. This is an early-career role with a deliberately broad scope. We're looking for hands‑on building experience and fast learning rather than a long track record, and you'll own the engineering model from day one with the support to grow into it. We proudly have an \"extreme ownership\" oriented engineering culture.

What You’ll Do

• Own the payload engineering model day to day, end to end: requirements, design, build, integration, test and write-up


• Develop payload, autonomy, effector, power, thermal and pointing requirements, and the ICDs between payload, avionics and spacecraft bus


• Prepare SRR, PDR and CDR packages, and keep the verification matrix and risk register current between gates


• Integrate the engineering model: effector subsystem, edge‑compute avionics, and a multimodal sensor suite (optical, LiDAR, radar)


• Carry out optical alignment and performance verification, and feed corrective design iterations back into the build


• Run hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing in the Void Lab, closing the loop from perception through to pointing against simulated orbital targets


• Support environmental qualification (TVAC, launch vibration, EMC/EMI), including pre‑and post‑test functional testing and the anomaly and corrective‑action trail


• Deliver an end‑to‑end ground demonstration on a payload‑in‑the‑loop testbed


• Produce customer‑facing documentation: test reports, qualification dossier, and final performance assessment against KPPs

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, Physics, Optics or Photonics, Robotics, Computer Science, or demonstrated equivalent knowledge


• 0–2 years of professional experience. Early‑career candidates, including recent graduates, are encouraged to apply


• Hands‑on evidence of building something real and making it work, such as a university cubesat or rocketry team, research lab, Formula Student, a hardware internship, or a project taken from nothing to working. We weight this far above grades


• Working proficiency in Python

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Space exposure in any form: cubesat program, hosted payload, space or defense internship, or a space‑focused Master's project


• Optics and photonics bench work (laser safety experience, e.g. ANSI Z136, a plus)


• Computer vision


• Closed‑loop pointing and control


• Environmental test and integration


• Systems engineering practice


• Embedded or real‑time software

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you 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 the ITAR here.

Compensation & Benefits

• Pay Range for this role:


• (P1) Entry: $99,000 - $133,000 / year


• Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool


• Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave


• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage


• 401(k) retirement plan with company match


• Los Angeles

Additional Information

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case‑by‑case basis and may vary based on job‑related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full‑time hires, you may also be eligible for long‑term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Lodestar is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Lodestar is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.