Spacecraft PCB Design Engineer

Proteus Space, Inc.; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Flexible vacation

401k matching

Pregnancy leave

Family leave

Holiday pay

Military service leave

Dental care

Vision care

Job summary

Proteus Space, Inc. is seeking an experienced Spacecraft PCB Design Engineer for an in-office role in Los Angeles. You will design, assemble, and test electrical boards for our spacecraft builds, working with avionics subsystems and flatsat emulators.

The role emphasizes reliability, testability, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to ensure compliant, high-performance designs. A Top Secret clearance eligibility is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in electrical or aerospace engineering.
• 5+ years hands-on aerospace electrical engineering and board testing.
• Proficient in PCB design software (Altium, KiCad, Eagle).
• Experience debugging PCBs with scopes/logic analyzers; soldering/rework.
• Experience in clean room environments and ESD protocols.
• Ability to collaborate in a dynamic environment and maintain professionalism.
• Eligible to obtain US DoD Top Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Execute spacecraft electrical PCB design, integration, and testing.
• Develop avionics subsystems and flatsat emulators with focus on reliability and testability.
• Develop electrical integration and bring-up procedures.
• Assist with electrical support equipment design and use.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate compute and power subsystems.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements.
• Document design processes and test results; communicate system performance.

Skills

PCB design

PCB debugging

ESD procedures

Education

Bachelor’s or advanced degree in electrical/aerospace engineering

Tools

Altium

KiCad

Eagle

Job description

Company Description

Proteus Space is a Los Angeles-based spacecraft technology company established to capitalize on a rapidly evolving space landscape and the urgent need to deliver resilient orbital capabilities to maintain and increase our national science and security interests. We combine serious space flight experience with an open minded, first-principles approach, leveraging advanced computational design and Industry 4.0 practices to deliver custom spacecraft and mission solutions with industry leading speed, precision, and reliability. We seek to enable every payload and mission with a fully custom, purpose-built spacecraft bus, designed and delivered using Proteus™, our patent-pending, automated computational design platform, with industry leading reliability.

Role Description

We are seeking a Spacecraft PCB Design Engineer to join our flight program team. This is a full-time, in office role for an experienced professional with a proven track record of hands-on work across multiple areas of spacecraft electrical and avionics engineering. In this role, you will support the design, development, assembly, and testing of electrical boards and assemblies for our spacecraft builds.

Key Responsibilities

• Execute spacecraft electrical PCB design, integration, and testing.
• Execute the design and development of avionics subsystems and flatsat emulators for spacecraft designs with an emphasis on reliability and testability.
• Develop and execute electrical integration procedures and board bring up procedures.
• Assist with electrical support equipment design, build, and use.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate compute and power subsystems with other spacecraft subsystems.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements.
• Document design processes, test results, and system performance.
• Provide training and technical guidance on spacecraft flight and test configuration grounding to fellow engineers, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or similar field.
• 5+ years of core electrical engineering discipline experience in aerospace, with heavy emphasis on hands-on spacecraft hardware testing and assembly.
• Proficiency in PCB design software such as Altium, Kicad, Eagle, etc.
• Demonstrated expertise in PCB debugging, using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and manual soldering/rework tools.
• Experience working in clean room environments and adhering to ESD protocols.
• Strong ability to collaborate effectively in a dynamic environment while maintaining a positive and professional attitude.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Must possess or be willing and eligible to obtain a United States Department of Defense Top Secret security clearance.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience designing electronics assemblies specifically for use in space applications.
• Experience with the NASA GEVS standard.
• Experience with IPC Class board assembly standards.
• Experience with EMI/EMC and magnetics analysis and testing.
• Experience designing and building wiring harnesses for EGSE and flight use.
• Experience integrating custom-designed electronics into larger spacecraft systems.
• Experience designing and implementing grounding and shielding schemes at the spacecraft level.

Salary Range:

$140,000 - $175,000 per year. Final compensation is based on experience, education and qualifications.

Benefits

Proteus Space offers comprehensive benefits including paid medical healthcare for employees, flexible vacation policy, sick days, 401k matching option, pregnancy leave, family leave, holiday pay, military service leave, dental care, vision care and other benefits.

Equal Opportunity

Proteus is committed to providing equal employment opportunity regardless of an applicant’s age, disability, sex, race, religion, gender, national origin, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. The Company will provide reasonable accommodations to an applicant with a disability or religious belief in or to enable the applicant to apply for the position.