Senior Space Avionics Hardware Development Engineer Verified today

About Varda

Varda is accelerating commercial space infrastructure development, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable reentry capsules. The W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated in-house by Varda, including pharmaceutical processing payloads, capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses.

The Role

As a Senior Space Avionics Hardware Development Engineer, you will design and deliver flight-critical electrical hardware for our satellite bus, reentry vehicle, and customer payloads. You will own your hardware domain from schematic capture through flight qualification, define subsystem requirements based on mission objectives, and ensure manufactured systems meet those requirements. You will also define safe operating criteria and support mission operations decisions on risk tradeoffs near operating bounds.

Responsibilities

• PCB level electronics design at all lifecycle stages: schematic capture, layout, design validation, fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing test.
• Support avionics architecture trade studies, analyses, performance characterization, device selection, and roadmap direction.
• Serve as avionics subject matter expert for satellite, reentry vehicle, and payload hardware, supporting GNC, pharmaceutical, mission operations, and integration teams.
• Collaborate with flight software, thermal, GNC, and structures teams to determine system-level impacts of design decisions.
• Own product acceptance and qualification testing for space environments: Thermal, Vibe, Shock, TVAC, and EMI testing with Avionics Test team support.
• Direct system-level integration test plans to verify hardware performs at the vehicle level.
• Perform root cause analysis on test failures and implement holistic mitigation strategies for flight risks.
• Mentor junior engineers on projects, challenges, and design methodologies.

Basic Qualifications

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related engineering discipline.
• 5+ years direct experience designing electronics hardware for aerospace, automotive, or other high-reliability industries, including schematic capture, PCB layout, board bring-up, and environmental qualification.
• Demonstrated experience contributing to complex electronics systems from design to production and deployment.
• Advanced PCB design expertise: high speed signal integrity, power and grounding, electromagnetic compatibility.
• Experience taking complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly.
• Expert user of Altium and/or KiCad EDA suites.
• Strong hands-on lab experience with oscilloscopes, function generators, digital multimeters, and power supplies.
• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or equivalent scripting/data analysis language.
• Demonstrated experience implementing on-board and over-harness communication protocols: SPI, RS-422, 1000BASE-T.
• Experience designing analog and digital filtering and mixed-signal circuits.
• Power electronics design experience: load switches and switch mode DC:DC converters.

Preferred Skills

• Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills.
• Strong general knowledge in physics, math, and chemistry fundamentals for designing electronics for unique environments.
• Understanding of aerospace sensor and actuator technologies: RTDs, pressure transducers, brushless motors, solenoid valves, thermocouples, stepper motors, rotary and linear encoders.

Compensation and Location

• Salary range: $140,333 - $202,703 per year.
• On-site in El Segundo, CA.
• Base salary determined by job-related skills, education, experience level, and job performance.
• Eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards.

Employment Requirements

Varda requires all employees to be lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. and maintains a policy of hiring only U.S. persons, as defined by export control regulations, because employees have access to export-controlled items. U.S. person means: U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or individual admitted as a refugee or granted asylum.