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Senior Battery Engineer Verified today

Cowboy Space · Kent, WA · Electronics · first seen 2026-07-22
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The Role

You will own the design, development, integration, and qualification of spacecraft battery systems. You'll develop reliable, high-performance energy storage solutions that power spacecraft through eclipse periods, peak load events, and critical mission operations.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role for an engineer who takes battery systems from concept through flight. You'll work closely with power electronics, avionics, thermal, mechanical, and software engineers to develop flight-ready battery hardware capable of operating safely and reliably in space.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own battery architecture and development from concept through flight qualification
  • Design battery packs, module architectures, and electrical interconnects (laser welding, wire bonding, busbar design) to meet mission requirements, including series/parallel cell configuration trade-offs
  • Develop battery management systems (BMS) including cell balancing (passive and active), state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) estimation (coulomb counting, OCV-based, Kalman filtering), fault detection, and protection strategies
  • Select battery cell chemistries and components (NMC, NCA, LFP, or primary Li-CFx) based on mission requirements, specific energy/power, cycle life, reliability, and environmental constraints
  • Perform battery sizing, capacity analysis, degradation modeling (capacity fade, impedance growth), depth-of-discharge (DoD) management, and lifecycle assessments
  • Develop battery charging and discharge strategies in partnership with power systems team, including coordination with solar array power management (MPPT vs. direct energy transfer) and peak-load current limiting
  • Define thermal management requirements and collaborate with thermal engineers to ensure safe operation, including thermal runaway propagation mitigation and cold-survival heater strategy
  • Lead battery integration, validation, environmental qualification, and acceptance testing including vibration/shock (GEVS/NASA-STD-7001), thermal vacuum cycling (TVAC), vacuum outgassing (ASTM E595), and abuse testing
  • Investigate battery performance, reliability, and failure modes through analysis and testing, including root-cause failure analysis
  • Support manufacturing, supplier selection, design-for-manufacturability (DFM) reviews, cell matching, weld quality inspection (X-ray/CT), and production readiness
  • Support spacecraft integration, launch campaigns, and on-orbit battery performance monitoring

Basic Qualifications

  • BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or related discipline
  • 3+ years developing battery systems for aerospace, automotive, defense, or other high-reliability applications
  • Experience designing battery packs and energy storage systems, including cell/module/pack architecture and electrical interconnect design
  • Knowledge of lithium-ion battery chemistry (NMC, NCA, LFP), degradation mechanisms, and safety considerations
  • Experience developing or integrating Battery Management Systems (BMS), including cell balancing, SOC/SOH estimation, and fault protection
  • Experience with battery testing, characterization, and validation including cycle life testing, performance across temperature, and abuse/safety testing
  • Familiarity with battery modeling (equivalent circuit models or electrochemical models), lifecycle analysis, and performance prediction
  • Strong analytical and hands-on hardware debugging skills

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience developing spacecraft or satellite battery systems
  • Experience with radiation effects on battery systems and space-qualified components
  • Experience with battery thermal modeling and thermal runaway mitigation, including coupled thermal-electrochemical simulation (e.g., COMSOL)
  • Knowledge of NASA, ECSS, or aerospace battery qualification and safety standards (MSFC-STD-3012, AFSPCMAN 91-710, GEVS/NASA-STD-7001, ECSS-E-ST-20-01)
  • Experience supporting vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, and environmental testing campaigns
  • Experience with battery safety analysis including FMEA, fault tree analysis (FTA), and hazard assessments, along with abuse/safety test standards (UN 38.3, IEC 62133, UL 1642/2054)
  • Familiarity with MATLAB/Simulink, Python, or equivalent tools for battery modeling, SOC/SOH algorithm development, and analysis
  • Experience with isolated cell monitoring architectures and BMS IC platforms (e.g., isoSPI daisy-chain architectures)
  • Experience supporting battery hardware from prototype through flight, including launch campaign support and on-orbit anomaly investigation

Compensation and Benefits

Salary range: $167,000 to $230,000 annually. Actual base salary depends on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

  • Equity in Cowboy Space Corp
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and eligible dependents
  • 401(k) retirement savings plan
  • Paid time off
  • 10 paid holidays per calendar year
  • Paid parental leave
  • Relocation assistance if applicable
  • Daily office lunch and fully stocked kitchen

ITAR Requirement

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