Senior Radiation Effects & Resilience Engineer Verified today

About Cowboy Space

Cowboy Space Corporation is building modular, scalable satellites that collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit. The satellites transmit energy via infrared lasers, power on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and provide secure optical data transport. The company has raised approximately $365 million and is based in San Carlos, CA.

The Role

Lead radiation effects analysis and resilience strategy for orbital compute systems. This role combines deep physics and radiation expertise with systems intuition and an interest in building large-scale compute infrastructure beyond Earth.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead radiation effects analysis and resilience strategy for orbital compute systems.
• Analyze radiation effects on advanced semiconductor devices including GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs, networking ASICs, memory subsystems, and power electronics.
• Evaluate and develop mitigation techniques for SEU, SET, SEL, TID, and displacement damage.
• Define architectural resilience strategies including ECC, redundancy, fault detection and recovery, and software-defined fault tolerance mechanisms.
• Plan and execute radiation test campaigns.
• Coordinate with external laboratories and test facilities to define test conditions, sample preparation, biasing configurations, and data collection methodologies.
• Analyze radiation test results and derive reliability metrics including cross-section analysis, FIT estimation, and mission reliability projections.
• Develop radiation hardness assurance (RHA) methodologies for compute platforms and high-density PCB systems.
• Collaborate with mechanical and packaging teams on shielding and structural mitigation strategies.
• Investigate radiation-induced anomalies and drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Contribute to component selection, platform architecture, and deployment readiness reviews.

Basic Qualifications

• 5 or more years hands-on experience in radiation effects analysis, radiation testing, or space systems reliability engineering.
• Deep understanding of radiation interactions with semiconductor devices and electronic systems.
• Strong knowledge of Total Ionizing Dose (TID), Single Event Effects (SEE), and Displacement Damage (DDD).
• Experience planning and executing radiation characterization campaigns with external test facilities.
• Experience working with high-performance compute hardware, semiconductor devices, or spaceborne electronics.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with architectural fault tolerance and resilient distributed systems.
• Knowledge of NASA, ESA, ECSS, or MIL-STD radiation qualification standards.
• Experience with shielding optimization and materials.
• Experience running radiation simulations and material characterization.

Location

Onsite in San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA.

Compensation

Salary range: $185,000 to $200,000 annually. Actual base salary depends on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

Benefits include equity in Cowboy Space Corp., medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid time off, 10 paid holidays per calendar year, paid parental leave, relocation assistance if applicable, and daily lunch in the office with a fully stocked kitchen.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.