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K2 Space is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, backed by over $1 billion in total funding and $1 billion in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers. The company is mass-producing advanced satellite platforms for missions from LEO to deep space, with multiple launches planned for 2027 and scaling to 100 satellites per year.
As Principal Hardware Reliability Engineer, you will serve as the technical authority on hardware reliability, owning the development and execution of reliability strategies that enable K2's spacecraft to meet ambitious vehicle and constellation-level targets for probability of success and availability. You will define top-level reliability requirements, models, and allocations across the full spacecraft and constellation portfolio.
Key responsibilities include: developing and maintaining reliability requirements and models; defining and driving HALT/HASS strategies and accelerated testing plans; establishing reliability modeling frameworks including Weibull analysis, accelerated failure time modeling, Monte Carlo simulations, and Probabilistic Risk Assessment; integrating reliability analyses with program risk management; flowing down reliability requirements to subsystems with clear margins and derating guidelines; leading root cause investigations on critical hardware failures; collaborating with design, systems, test, and manufacturing teams; mentoring junior and mid-level engineers; serving as technical authority advising leadership on risk trade-offs; owning FRACAS and test-effectiveness tracking; and advancing degradation-based and Bayesian reliability methods.
You will sit at the intersection of design, test, systems, and manufacturing, embedding reliability principles early in development while optimizing for mass production. This is a hands-on role in a fast-paced startup environment where you will shape K2's reliability strategy as the company scales toward high-volume satellite production.
