Electric Propulsion Engineer, Avionics

About the Role

SpaceX is hiring an Electric Propulsion Engineer (avionics focus) to join a collaborative engineering team working on the design, analysis, build, and test of high-volume, flight-qualified satellite electric propulsion systems. In this role, you will contribute to end-to-end hardware ownership of propulsion power-processing and control electronics, from design through production support and qualification, for hardware that must meet flight reliability requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, analyze, test, and provide operational support for high-volume production spacecraft electric propulsion avionics (power-processing and control electronics that drive thrusters, heaters, and propellant-feed actuators).
• Lead or contribute to electrical architecture, specification, component selection, circuit-board design, implementation, verification, board bring-up, and debugging.
• Design, develop, and test propulsion electronics, including characterization, requirements generation and verification, and flight qualification.
• Partner with firmware/software, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing, and production-test teams.
• Design, build, modify, operate, and troubleshoot electric propulsion electronics and associated test setups, including vacuum-chamber electrical interfaces, high-voltage supplies, data acquisition and control systems, harnessing, and instrumentation.
• Analyze and review ground-test and flight data with numerical tools (e.g., Python, MATLAB) to confirm hardware is operating as expected and inform design decisions; develop scripts as needed.
• Lead root-cause investigations and board or component redesigns to improve reliability and/or production rates.
• Develop and execute qualification test plans for flight readiness (vibration, shock, thermal cycle, EMI/EMC, life cycle, fault injection).
• Evaluate design and qualification coverage for new vehicles and missions; close gaps with targeted analysis or test.
• Make risk-informed trades across cost, lead time, reliability, and performance to meet program reliability targets for flight hardware.
• Own critical spaceflight hardware end-to-end, with support from manufacturing, reliability, test, firmware, and operations teams.
• Work as an integrated team, with daily interactions among technicians, engineers, and managers; identify and implement design and process improvements.
• Communicate clearly under ambiguity, escalate technical and schedule risks early, and collaborate through disagreement.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Electrical, aerospace, physics, mechanical, or other engineering discipline degree preferred.
• 1+ years of total experience in one or a combination of the following:
• Professional or internship experience designing, testing, and analyzing power electronics, analog/mixed-signal, or spacecraft avionics.
• Academic research with comparable design/build/test ownership of power supplies, plasma or electric-propulsion power processing, high-voltage, or control electronics.
• Closely related hardware experience (e.g., motor drives, converters, RF/power, or instrumentation for vacuum or plasma systems).
• Demonstrated delivery of hardware for aerospace, defense, space, or equivalent high-reliability or safety-critical use (lab, flight, or production; new design or iterative redesign).
• Experience with mixed-signal or power electronics bring-up, characterization, and debug.
• Working knowledge of analog and power electronics, high-voltage design, circuit protection, EMI/EMC, and numerical analysis programming (e.g., Python, MATLAB).
• Working knowledge of control loops, plasma or nonlinear electrical loads, schematic/layout review, vacuum operation, and C/C++ as applicable.
• Experience prioritizing concurrent design, build, and test work against flight and production milestones.
• Clear documentation habits appropriate for flight hardware.
• Track record of improving designs and processes for reliability, rate, or quality.

Additional Qualifications

• Ability to perform essential job duties that may include working in and around vacuum chambers and high-voltage test areas—standing, kneeling, crouching, twisting the upper body, working in cramped positions in small openings, and climbing hand-over-hand.
• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time.
• This role is primarily on-site.

Clearance & ITAR

• Active Top Secret or Top Secret/SCI clearance, or ability and willingness to obtain a Top Secret clearance, is desired but not required.
• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.