Apex Space
Senior Electric Propulsion Engineer, Cathodes
$165K–$220K
Los Angeles · Senior · Full-time · Posted Sep 22, 2026
- Experience
- 6+ years of relevant electric propulsion experience with a Bachelor's or Master's degree, OR a Ph.D. in a relevant field with 3+ years of relevant industry experience.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in a related field; alternatively, a Ph.D. in electric propulsion, plasma physics, applied physics, or a closely related field.
- Visa sponsorship
- Applicants must qualify as a U.S. Person or be able to obtain required U.S. government export authorizations.
About the job
Owns cathode design, development, testing, qualification, and production for electric propulsion systems, including integration with thrusters and support for flight hardware.
What you'll do
- Develop hollow and/or heaterless cathodes, models, materials, and production processes.
- Plan and lead cathode testing, life qualification, and cathode-thruster integration.
- Support flight hardware build, test, launch, performance evaluation, and failure investigations.
What they ask for
- Deep hands-on knowledge of hollow and/or heaterless cathode physics, materials, discharge behavior, and thruster coupling.
- Experience planning and executing cathode or electric propulsion test campaigns in vacuum facilities, including diagnostics and life/wear testing.
- Relevant electric propulsion experience and substantial demonstrable focus on cathode design, development, and testing.
- Must meet the posting’s stated U.S. Person or export-authorization eligibility requirements.
Nice to have
- Experience taking cathode or EP thruster hardware through flight qualification and on-orbit operation.
- Design-for-manufacturing experience bringing propulsion hardware into serial or high-rate production.
Pay
$165K – $220K USD base salary
Tools
LaB6, BaO-impregnated tungsten, Hall-effect thruster, PPU, TVAC, EMI
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative