Principal Electrical Power Batteries & Controls Engineer Verified today

About Axiom Space

Axiom Space builds commercial space infrastructure, beginning with Axiom Station, the successor to the International Space Station. The company provides commercial human spaceflight services and advanced spacesuits for lunar and deep-space missions.

The Role

You will own the energy storage segment of the Axiom Station Electrical Power System from requirements baseline through verified flight article. This is the role of the person who decides what the energy storage system must do, proves by analysis that it can do it, writes the documents that hold the design accountable, and ensures suppliers, safety authority, and the rest of the vehicle agree.

The energy storage segment is a high-voltage lithium-ion system supporting a regulated 120 V primary bus, with charge and discharge regulation, isolation monitoring, protection, and management functions split between Axiom and supplier scope.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the energy storage requirement baseline: cells, modules, vaults, management and protection functions, charge and discharge regulation, isolation monitoring, and associated telemetry and commanding. Decompose station and module-level power requirements into verifiable equipment-level requirements and maintain bidirectional traceability in the program requirements management tool.
• Write requirements as system properties, not implementations. Hold the line on verifiability, single source of truth, and disciplined closure of every TBD, TBC, and TBR with named owners and closing events.
• Build, run, and defend analyses that size the system: orbit average power and energy balance, eclipse and contingency energy budgets, depth of discharge and life degradation to end of service, charge taper and return to full charge time, state of charge estimation error effects, and energy availability after credible failures.
• Define electrical interfaces between battery and charge/discharge regulation; author or co-author interface control documents covering voltage envelopes, constant power operating corners, inhibit commands and response timing, protection coordination, telemetry content and rates, isolation and grounding treatment, and connector and harness definition.
• Own power quality at the storage interface: steady-state limits, ripple and noise, transient response across mode transitions such as eclipse entry and exit, and stability margin.
• Develop verification and validation strategy and matrices: cell lot screening and acceptance, module and vault-level test, integrated string and system-level test, environmental and EMC test participation, and acceptance criteria.
• Support safety and hazard analysis for high-voltage energy storage: thermal runaway initiation and propagation, single fault tolerance, inadvertent energization and discharge, off-nominal charging, isolation loss, and associated controls, verifications, and safety data package content.
• Lead technical content of supplier engagement: statements of work, procurement specifications, request for proposal technical packages, rough order of magnitude and proposal evaluation, supplier data package review, deviation and waiver disposition, and recovery planning.
• Act as integrator between energy storage segment and rest of vehicle: thermal and structures for vault installation and heat rejection; avionics and flight software for control, telemetry, and fault detection; operations for procedures and constraints; and logistics for orbital replaceable unit sparing and on-orbit maintenance.
• Prepare, present, and defend material at SRR, PDR, CDR, Test Readiness Review, Manufacturing Readiness Review, and Flight Readiness Review, including to NASA and international partner audiences. Drive review actions to closure.
• Communicate technical status, risk, and options clearly to stakeholders and leadership, with assumptions and uncertainty stated rather than hidden.

Experience and Education

Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent. Advanced degree preferred.

Level 4: 8 or more years of experience in spacecraft or high-reliability electrical power systems engineering, with meaningful ownership of an energy storage or power conditioning segment.

Level 5: 12 or more years, including at least one program carried from requirements definition through Critical Design Review or later. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Additionally required:

• Demonstrated system-level work with lithium-ion energy storage: architecture and sizing, series and parallel topology trades, management and protection function allocation, isolation and grounding treatment, and charge and discharge control concepts.
• Working understanding of power electronics on the other side of the interface, including charge and discharge regulation, current limiting, and protection, sufficient to challenge a supplier design and recognize an optimistic answer.
• Proven ability to author engineering documentation that passes external review: requirement specifications, interface control documents, power quality specifications, analysis reports, verification plans, and test procedures.
• Modeling and analysis capability in MATLAB and Simulink, Python, or equivalent, including energy balance models, degradation models, and circuit or system-level simulation.
• Experience working requirements in a managed environment such as Jama, DOORS, or equivalent, including traceability, baselines, and change control.
• Direct experience managing technical scope with suppliers and subcontractors: specification, negotiation, data package review, and issue recovery.
• Track record of delivering outcomes in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with high-quality results under tight deadlines.
• Good judgment to problem-solve proactively and positively impact hard challenges.
• Demonstrated organization skills to meet tight deadlines with high-quality results.

Preferred Qualifications

• Human spaceflight or crewed vehicle experience, and familiarity with the associated safety review process.
• Familiarity with ISS power standards and practices, including SSP 30237, SSP 52051, NASA-STD-4003, MSFC-STD-3790, and JSC-20793 cell screening.
• Experience with thermal runaway propagation testing, battery safety testing, or cell lot acceptance campaigns.
• Experience with orbital replaceable unit design, sparing strategy, and on-orbit maintenance concepts.
• Experience with fault detection, isolation, and recovery definition and operations product development.
• INCOSE certification or equivalent demonstrated systems engineering practice.

Work Environment

Generally an office environment in Houston, but can involve inside or outside work depending on the task. Must be willing to work evenings and weekends as needed to meet critical project milestones.

Work involves sitting or standing for extended periods (90% of the time). May require lifting and carrying up to 25 lbs. (5% of the time).

Export Control and Requirements

This position may require access to export-controlled technical data or technology subject to NASA regulations, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), or Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Final candidates may be required to undergo additional export control screening to determine eligibility for access. Meeting these requirements is a condition of employment.