SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 105,000 - 172,673 / annual
Varda Space Industries is accelerating commercial space infrastructure development, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates W-Series vehicles in-house, including pharmaceutical processing payloads, capsules, heat shields, and satellite buses. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, CA with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL, and was founded in 2021 by veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and major pharmaceutical companies.
As an Avionics Hardware Development Engineer, you will design, manufacture, test, and represent electrical components used to fly and manufacture products in space. You will have immense ownership of hardware through all lifecycle phases, from requirements definition through production release. The role emphasizes rigorous testing and quality—components are stressed above and beyond expected flight levels, and failures are investigated thoroughly.
Key responsibilities include:
- Develop mixed-signal designs and shepherd them through the full product lifecycle including requirements definition, design, development, qualification, and release to production
- Support avionics architecture trade studies, analyses, performance characterization, specification, device selection, and roadmap direction
- Support risk analyses, design for test/manufacture/cost, and root-cause analysis of test discrepancies
- Design electrical circuit boards
- Collaborate on mechanical design fit, form, and function
- Functionally test hardware through thermal, vibration, shock, TVAC, and EMI testing
- Write vehicle-level integration test plans to validate for flight
- Perform root cause analysis for test failures and develop mitigation strategies for flight risks
- Work on avionics products including flight computers, networking, star trackers, reaction wheels, magnetorquers, payload controllers, battery packs, solar chargers, RF transceivers, and decoders
This is an on-site role in El Segundo, CA. The position offers long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards, plus comprehensive benefits including flexible PTO, 12 paid holidays, 100% company-paid medical/dental/vision insurance, FSA and employer-matched HSA options, 401(k) matching, and complimentary EV charging.
Requirements:
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
- 3+ years of direct experience designing electrical hardware (specific details truncated in provided excerpt)
- Firm understanding of instrumentation, interfaces, and sensors including power supplies, serial devices, switch topologies, accelerometers, and 4-20mA sensors
- Must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or individual admitted as refugee/granted asylum) due to ITAR export-control requirements
