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Star Catcher is building the first energy grid in space to power the orbital economy. The company is developing technology to wirelessly beam energy to spacecraft's existing solar panels, enabling spacecraft to "plug into" an orbital power grid rather than generating all their own power.
As Senior Electrical Engineer - Controls (Pointing, Acquisition & Tracking), you will lead the design and implementation of pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) control systems for spacecraft optical power delivery. This is a full-cycle role spanning requirements definition, architecture design, algorithm development, hardware verification, and on-orbit performance assessment.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead PAT control and estimation architecture, including coarse/fine pointing coordination, acquisition, handoff, tracking, loss-of-lock detection, and reacquisition
- Own system interfaces with electrical, FPGA, flight software, optical, mechanical, and spacecraft attitude-control teams
- Develop detection, centroiding, estimation, and sensor-fusion algorithms robust to low signal-to-noise ratio, background variation, platform motion, and intermittent measurements
- Define sensor, actuator, and processing requirements for field of view, dynamic range, noise, bandwidth, update rates, timestamp accuracy, latency, jitter, travel limits, and saturation behavior
- Own pointing and tracking error budgets, including bias, alignment, thermal drift, measurement noise, platform jitter, and timing error
- Deliver reference models and implementation requirements to FPGA and embedded software teams; verify implemented algorithms against reference models
- Build and correlate plant and end-to-end PAT models using measured actuator, sensor, and structural behavior
- Lead requirements-based verification using simulation, recorded-data replay, hardware-in-the-loop, and integrated testing
- Lead PAT architecture trade studies and support new program pursuits
- Mentor engineers and lead technical design reviews as the PAT team grows
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls, Applied Physics, or related technical discipline
- 5+ years of experience developing pointing, tracking, or guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems (e.g., optical tracking systems, line-of-sight stabilization, spacecraft attitude control, or gimbaled sensor systems). Senior-level selection requires demonstrated PAT architecture ownership, integrated hardware verification, cross-disciplinary decisions, and technical leadership
- Strong foundation in control theory, estimation, and signal processing, with demonstrated design and hardware validation of precision feedback loops, including sampled-data effects, stability margins, disturbance rejection, and actuator limits
- Demonstrated experience developing target detection, centroiding, and tracking algorithms using imaging or position-sensing detectors
- Experience applying state estimation and sensor fusion, including measurement validity, covariance interpretation, coordinate transformations, and time alignment
- Experience translating algorithms into real-time embedded implementations with FPGA, DSP, or processor teams, including latency and numerical-precision tradeoffs and model-to-implementation verification
- Hands-on experience with system identification, control-loop tuning, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and troubleshooting integrated hardware/software systems; proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink, Python, or equivalent modeling and analysis tools
Desired skills:
- Heritage developing PAT, optical tracking, or line-of-sight stabilization systems that have flown on spacecraft or aircraft
- Experience using orbital ephemerides, relative-motion geometry, and uncertainty estimates for acquisition planning
- Experience with active illumination or lidar-based tracking and ranging systems
- Experience with fast steering mirrors, gimbals, or coarse pointing assemblies
- Familiarity with EO/IR sensor characteristics and their effect on tracking performance
- Experience with fixed-point algorithm design, model-based design, or code-generation workflows for FPGA or embedded processors
- C/C++ experience for embedded implementation and Python or MATLAB experience for automated analysis and test
- Familiarity with spacecraft attitude determination and control, payload-to-bus pointing interfaces, boresight calibration, and thermomechanical alignment effects
- Experience with NASA/DoD life cycle and technical reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR)
- Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical design reviews
Note: ITAR compliance required—must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
