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Salary: USD 140,333 - 202,703 / 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 its W-Series vehicles in-house, including satellite buses, pharmaceutical processing payloads, heat shields, and reentry capsules.
As a Senior Spacecraft Avionics Hardware Development Engineer, you will design and deliver flight-critical electrical hardware for Varda's satellite bus, reentry vehicle, and customer payloads. You will own your hardware domain end-to-end, from schematic capture through flight qualification. Your responsibilities include:
• PCB-level electronics design across all lifecycle stages: schematic capture, layout, design validation, fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing test
• Support avionics architecture trade studies, 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 cross-functionally with flight software, thermal, GNC, and structures teams to assess system-level impacts of design decisions
• Own product acceptance and qualification testing for space environments (thermal, vibration, shock, TVAC, EMI)
• Provide direction on system-level integration test plans to verify hardware performance at the vehicle level
• Perform root cause analysis on test failures and implement mitigation strategies for flight risks
• Mentor junior engineers on projects, challenges, and design methodologies
Varda emphasizes rigorous testing and failure investigation, stressing components beyond expected flight levels to ensure reliability.
REQUIREMENTS:
• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related engineering discipline
• 5+ years of direct experience designing electronics hardware (schematic capture, PCB layout, board bring-up, environmental qualification) for aerospace, automotive, or other high-reliability industries
• Demonstrated experience contributing to complex electronics systems from design through production/deployment
• Advanced PCB design expertise: high-speed signal integrity, power and grounding, electromagnetic compatibility
• Experience taking complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly
• Expert-level proficiency with 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 similar scripting/data analysis languages
• Demonstrated experience implementing hardware layer of on-board and over-harness communication protocols (SPI, RS-422, 1000BASE-T)
• Experience designing analog/digital filtering and mixed-signal circuits
• Power electronics design experience including load switches and switch-mode DC:DC converters
PREFERRED:
• Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills
• Strong knowledge of physics, math, and chemistry fundamentals for designing electronics in unique environments
• Understanding of aerospace sensor and actuator technologies (RTDs, pressure transducers, brushless motors, solenoid valves, thermocouples, stepper motors, rotary/linear encoders)
Note: ITAR compliance required. Must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or individual admitted as refugee/granted asylum) due to access to export-controlled technology.
