Spaceflight Electrical Hardware Engineer

Physics World; Louisville (CO); On-site; USD 146,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

Capella Space seeks a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer to own the full electrical design lifecycle for spaceflight PCBAs, from concept to flight readiness, working with cross-functional teams to ensure robust, high-reliability electronics.

The role requires 8+ years of PCB design and hands-on lab experience, with strong Altium skills and knowledge of digital buses, ITAR compliance, and production-oriented mindset. onsite in Louisville, CO.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of experience designing and debugging PCBAs.
• Proficiency in Altium Designer (or similar ECAD tools).
• Hands-on experience with lab instruments (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power analyzers, etc.).
• Strong understanding of digital buses (I2C, SPI, UART, RS422, CAN, USB, PCIe, Ethernet etc.).
• ITAR compliance requires U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status.

Responsibilities

• Own the full electrical design lifecycle for complex spaceflight hardware: Concept of operations, requirements engineering, schematic capture, layout, bring-up, test, and manufacturing handoff.
• Develop robust analog/digital designs for mission-critical systems under environmental and performance constraints.
• Organize collaborative cross disciplinary design reviews sharing feedback and shaping solutions with a team of experienced engineers.
• Provide critical input to schedule planning, hardware requirements, and process improvements.
• Lead board-level bring-up and debugging, integrating firmware/software/FPGA with embedded systems.
• Define test plans and verification strategies that meet flight readiness requirements.
• Play a key role in scaling up our manufacturing facility bringing hardware from prototype to low-volume production.
• Collaborate across teams- mechanical, RF, software, FPGA/SoC, and systems to ensure seamless integration.
• Mentor early-career engineers contributing to internal process improvements and elevating the overall quality of the team.
• Engage with external vendors and CMs, ensuring delivery quality, resolving DFM/DFT issues, and ensuring on-time delivery.
• Drive failure analysis and root-cause investigations across flight or test anomalies.

Skills

Electrical engineering

PCB design

Lab instrumentation

Digital bus protocols

DFM/DFT

Documentation

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related field

Master's degree in electrical engineering or related field

Tools

Altium Designer

Job description

Capella Space seeks a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer to own the full electrical design lifecycle for spaceflight PCBAs, from concept to flight readiness, working with cross-functional teams to ensure robust, high-reliability electronics.

The role requires 8+ years of PCB design and hands-on lab experience, with strong Altium skills and knowledge of digital buses, ITAR compliance, and production-oriented mindset. onsite in Louisville, CO.