Sr. Electrical Engineer, User Terminals - TeraWave Verified today

About the role

Blue Origin is developing TeraWave, a satellite communications network delivering symmetrical data speeds up to 6 Tbps globally to enterprise, data center, and government users. You will join a founding team to own user terminal board design.

This is not a sustaining role. Terminal architecture is still converging, and the PCB workstream is waiting for the engineer who will lead it. You will define the schematic and layout approach for a product line that does not exist yet, working alongside RF, ASIC, and antenna engineers locking their requirements in parallel. Your first six months determine how the hardware gets built.

You will develop a family of terminals at different capability and cost points. You will carry designs from architecture through prototype bring-up, then apply what you learn to the next variant. Terminals are mass-market products, not spacecraft hardware. Build volume and unit cost are first-order design constraints. You will reach for terrestrial, COTS, and automotive-industry pricing rather than traditional aerospace pricing.

The hardest problem is power and heat. mmWave phased array apertures draw substantial current across large board areas with dynamic load behavior. High power density means conventional board-level thermal approaches do not suffice. Delivering current cleanly and extracting heat will dominate physical design and influence overall terminal size and weight. This is a mixed-signal power integrity and thermal codesign problem as much as a high-speed digital problem.

You will sit at the boundary between digital and RF worlds: high-speed data buses and clock distribution on one side, beamforming ICs and radiating elements on the other, with mmWave routing that cannot tolerate noise from the digital side. Our RF and antenna teams are in-house, so you will co-design that interface directly rather than across a supplier boundary.

Core responsibilities

• Own schematic capture and layout strategy for user terminal logic boards and aperture PCBAs, from architecture through release to fabrication
• Lead multi-layer, high-density interconnect PCB design, maintaining strict isolation between high-speed digital, IF, and sensitive mmWave routing on shared stackups
• Design power delivery networks capable of supplying and distributing high aggregate current across large-format boards, with the dynamic load behavior that beamforming produces
• Partner with thermal and mechanical engineering on board-level thermal design and heat extraction
• Collaborate with in-house RF, antenna, and ASIC engineers to define and optimize the physical interface between PCBs and radiating elements, including packaged-antenna integration, front-end IC placement, and feed routing
• Design and route high-speed data buses and reference clock distribution networks connecting modem, processing, and beamforming devices; manage insertion loss, matching, and phase and amplitude consistency across many parallel chains
• Perform signal integrity, power integrity, crosstalk, and EMI simulation and analysis at board and system level
• Contribute to component selection and architecture trades across processing, power, and front-end, treating availability, lead time, and cost as first-class criteria alongside performance
• Drive design for manufacturability and test with PCB fabricators and assembly partners, including panel utilization, stackup feasibility, and yield at production volume
• Lead physical bring-up, hardware debug, and functional lab characterization of prototype boards and integrated terminals
• Support qualification and regulatory compliance testing for an intentional radiator
• Help establish the electrical design practices, review standards, and documentation the terminal program will run on

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field
• 7 or more years of experience in complex hardware product development, such as telecom infrastructure, mmWave or 5G radio hardware, high-performance computing hardware, or comparable
• Proficiency in EDA tools such as Altium Designer or Cadence Allegro, with direct hands-on experience in schematic capture and layout of high-speed, multi-layer, mixed-signal boards
• Demonstrated experience designing robust power delivery networks for high-current, dynamically loaded systems
• Strong working understanding of RF fundamentals (impedance matching, transmission line design, shielding, insertion loss) sufficient to co-design effectively with RF and antenna specialists
• Hands-on experience with high-speed oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and vector network analyzers for hardware characterization and debug
• Track record of carrying hardware through the full lifecycle, from concept and schematic through integration, test, and production
• Comfort operating with requirements that are still being defined, and the judgment to make design decisions that hold up when they firm

Preferred qualifications

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field
• mmWave hardware design experience, including Ka-band, Q/V-band, E-band, or 5G mmWave (FR2)
• Phased array experience, including beamforming IC integration, digital or hybrid beamforming architectures, packaged-antenna integration, tile or panel-based array construction, and array calibration
• Direct experience co-designing PCB-to-radiator interfaces with antenna specialists, including rigid-flex and board-to-board RF interconnect
• Experience with large-format or panel-limited PCB design, including working within fabricator panel size and process constraints
• Board-level thermal design for high power density, including heat spreading, thermal interface selection, and codesign with mechanical and thermal engineering
• Familiarity with satellite communication systems (LEO/GEO) or commercial high-capacity wireless infrastructure
• Experience designing hardware around high-performance SoCs or FPGAs (AMD/Xilinx, Microchip, Altera/Intel, or high-speed Arm application processors), including DDR interfaces and SerDes
• Track record of achieving regulatory compliance for intentional radiators (FCC Part 15/Part 25, CE, ETSI)
• Experience designing hardware for outdoor, weather-exposed installation, including sealing, ingress protection, and environmental qualification
• Experience taking cost out of a hardware design across successive generations, or designing for high-volume consumer or automotive manufacturing

Compensation and location

Base pay range for CA, VA, and WA: $156,802.00 to $219,522.45. Other site ranges may differ.

This role is based at one of three locations. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with company match up to 5%, and Education Support Program. Stock options available for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week. Up to four weeks paid time off per year and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

Employment requirements

Applicants 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.

Blue's Standard Background Check is required for all positions. Additional background checks may be required depending on job profile and site requirements.