Sr. Solid-State Power Amplifier (SSPA) Responsible Engineer - Lunar Permanence

Blue Origin LLC; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Origin LLC seeks a Box Responsible Engineer for solid-state power amplifiers in the Lunar Permanence program. You will own the SSPA as an integrated product, guiding RF, power, and control card teams from requirements through flight support.

You will lead design reviews, manage interfaces, test campaigns, and cross-disciplinary trades to ensure RF performance, efficiency, and reliability for space environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related discipline.
• Minimum of 8 years of RF/microwave hardware experience.
• Experience across RF, power, and control/digital domains.
• Embedded software/firmware development experience.
• Space-grade or high-reliability RF hardware experience.
• Hands-on RF/electrical test equipment proficiency.
• Ability to lead complex hardware development projects.
• Excellent problem-solving and cross-functional collaboration.
• U.S. citizen or eligible to work in the U.S.

Responsibilities

• Serve as Box Responsible Engineer for solid-state power amplifier assemblies and box-level architecture.
• Provide technical leadership to card-level REs across RF, power, and control domains.
• Flow down system requirements and manage interfaces and trade-offs.
• Lead box design reviews, trade studies, and risk management.
• Own integration and test campaigns, including environment and qualification testing.
• Define box-level validation/verification for RF performance and power behavior.
• Partition functionality across RF, analog, digital, and software domains.
• Collaborate with systems, thermal, mechanical, and software teams for production readiness.
• Mentor junior engineers and present design status to leadership.

Skills

RF/microwave hardware

Power supply design

Control/digital card design

Embedded software/firmware

Lead technical teams

Space-grade hardware

RF test instrumentation

Hardware development leadership

Problem solving

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's in electrical engineering

Advanced degree (MS/PhD)

Tools

ADS

HFSS

CST

Microwave Office

SPICE

PLECS

Simulink

Job description

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role is part of the Lunar Permanence business unit, which develops Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers and related products. To further Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth, we are building sustainable infrastructure for our transport of crew and cargo from Earth to the lunar surface.This role is part of the Lunar Permanence business unit. To further Blue Origin's mission of having millions of people living and working in space, we are building the sustainable infrastructure for our transport of crew and cargo from Earth to the Lunar Surface.As part of a hardworking team of diverse specialists, technicians, and engineers, you will serve as the Box Responsible Engineer (RE) for our solid-state power amplifier products supporting lunar communication systems. You will own the SSPA as an integrated product — not a single card — leading a team of card-level Responsible Engineers across RF, power supply, and control/digital domains. You are accountable for the box from requirements definition through design, integration, validation, qualification, and flight support.This is a highly collaborative and technical leadership role. Success requires an engineer who is comfortable operating across disciplines: someone who understands how amplifiers work, but who is equally fluent discussing DC-DC converter topologies with the power supply RE, telemetry and command interfaces with the control card RE, and firmware architecture with the software team. You will be the technical integrator and single point of accountability for the SSPA. **Responsibilities include but are not limited to:*** Serve as the Box Responsible Engineer for solid-state power amplifier assemblies, owning box-level architecture, requirements decomposition, interfaces, budgets (power, thermal, mass, RF performance), and verification.* Provide technical leadership to card-level REs spanning RF/power amplifier cards, power conditioning and supply cards, and control/digital cards, plus embedded software developers — driving schedule, technical decisions, and design maturity across the team.* Flow down system-level communication requirements to card-level specifications; negotiate and control internal and external interfaces (ICDs) and resolve cross-card technical trades.* Lead box-level design reviews, trade studies, and risk management; make and defend architecture decisions balancing RF performance, efficiency, thermal, mass, reliability, and cost.* Own the SSPA integration and test campaign: develop test plans and procedures, lead bench bring-up and debug, direct environmental and qualification testing, and disposition anomalies and nonconformances.* Define and execute box-level validation and verification, including RF performance characterization (output power, gain, efficiency, linearity, spurious/harmonics, phase noise), power supply and load transient behavior, **grounding,** thermal performance, **multipaction,** EMI/EMC, and command/telemetry functional testing.* Partition functionality across RF, analog, digital, and software domains in coordination with system architects, RF engineers, modem/DSP, and ASIC/FPGA engineers.* Collaborate with cross-functional teams including systems engineering, mission planning, thermal, mechanical, structures, harness, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain to ensure the box is designed for integration, test, and production.* Support supplier and vendor technical management for procured cards, modules, and components as needed.* Mentor junior engineers and contribute to building a high-performance, multidisciplinary hardware team.* Prepare and present technical reports, design review packages, and project status updates to stakeholders and leadership. **Minimum Qualifications:*** Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related discipline.* Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience developing RF/microwave hardware* Demonstrated working knowledge across multiple hardware domains beyond RF, specifically including: + Power supply and power conditioning design (DC-DC converter topologies, EMI filtering, regulation, protection, load transients, efficiency) + Control/digital card design (microcontroller or FPGA-based control, telemetry and command interfaces, ADC/DAC, serial buses such as SPI, I2C, RS-422/485,) + Embedded software/firmware development and the hardware-software interface* Experience as a box, assembly, or product-level Responsible Engineer (or equivalent technical lead role) with accountability for an integrated multi-card unit through integration and test.* Experience with space-grade or high-reliability RF hardware, including radiation-tolerant and radiation-hardened component selection and derating practices.* Hands-on experience with RF and electrical test equipment (network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, oscilloscopes, electronic loads) and box-level test automation.* Demonstrated ability to lead complex hardware development projects from concept through production.* Excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to understand and address multidisciplinary challenges.* Effective communication and interpersonal skills, with a track record of successfully leading and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams.* Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum. **Preferred Qualifications:*** Advanced degree (Master's or Ph.D.) in electrical engineering or related discipline.* Experience with SSPAs for space, aviation, defense, or satellite communication applications, including EPC (Electronic Power Conditioner) integration.* Familiarity with RF simulation and design tools (ADS, HFSS, CST, Microwave Office) and circuit/power simulation tools (SPICE, PLECS, Simulink).* Knowledge of digital communication systems, spread spectrum, single and multi-carrier techniques, and modulation types such as PSK, APSK, and QAM, and their implications for amplifier linearity and backoff.* Understanding of thermal and radiation effects on RF and power electronics in space environments; experience with thermal design of high-power RF assemblies.* Familiarity with lunar and deep space communication standards and protocols (e.g., CCSDS, DSN/LunaNet compatibility).* Experience with reliability analyses such as FMEA, worst-case circuit analysis, derating, and parts stress analysis.* Experience with EMI/EMC design and qualification to standards such as MIL-STD-461.* Familiarity with configuration management, requirements management, and PLM tools.### Base Pay Range for:CA applicants is $156,802.00 - $219,522.45CO applicants is $144,179.00 - $201,849.90WA applicants is $156,802.00 - $219,522.45