Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer

Entangled Future; Louisville (CO); On-site; USD 146,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

Capella Space is seeking a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer in Louisville, CO to own the full electrical design lifecycle for complex spaceflight hardware, from concept to flight readiness. You will collaborate across RF, mechanical, software, FPGA/SoC, and operations teams to deliver high-reliability electronics for orbit.

Qualification includes a Bachelor’s and 8+ years of PCB design experience, strong Altium skills, and hands-on lab instrument proficiency.

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.).
• Solid understanding of digital buses (I2C, SPI, UART, RS422, CAN, USB, PCIe, Ethernet etc.).
• Familiarity with board bring-up, test planning, and design verification workflows.

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.

Skills

PCB design

Altium Designer

Hardware debugging

Digital buses

Board bring-up

Documentation

DFM/DFT

Education

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering

Master’s degree in electrical engineering

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Power analyzers

ECAD tools

Job description

Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer at IonQ, Louisville, Colorado, United States; San Francisco, California, United States. A lead-level full time position in the Capella team, listed under software engineering.

Location: This role is based onsite at our Louisville, CO office. Travel: Up to 10%, domestic or international.

The Role

As a Staff Electrical Hardware Design Engineer, you will take ownership of full-cycle PCBA designs, from early concept to flight readiness. You will work cross-functionally with RF, mechanical, software, FPGA/SoC, and operations teams to bring high-reliability, space-ready electronics to orbit. You will guide the Electrical Engineering team on special topics and present across disciplines to help facilitate ideas, product readiness, and conduct reviews.

What Success Looks Like

• You consistently deliver flight-quality hardware on schedule with minimal oversight
• You proactively identify and articulate system-level risks and drive mitigations early
• You communicate across hardware/software and cross-functional gaps with confidence and clarity
• You make thoughtful trade-offs in constrained environments and justify them with data
• You show curiosity about advanced areas like architecture optimization or radiation mitigation, even if they’re outside your scope for now
• You exhibit advanced, wide-ranging experience in electrical engineering, using in-depth professional knowledge
• You get things done, align with stakeholders, and document concisely

Compensation

The approximate base salary range for this position is $145,920 - $192,047 . The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), specific office location and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity. Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Capella Space.

Compensation will vary based on individual factors such as education, qualifications, and experience of the final candidate(s), specific office location, and calibration against relevant market data and internal team equity.

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

Requirements

• 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.)
• Solid understanding of digital buses (I2C, SPI, UART, RS422, CAN, USB, PCIe, Ethernet etc.)
• Familiarity with board bring-up, test planning, and design verification workflows
• Experience interacting with contract manufacturers, supporting DFM reviews, and resolving production issues
• Strong documentation habits and organizational skills
• Master’s degree in electrical engineering or related field
• Experience designing for harsh environments (thermal, vacuum, vibration, etc.)