Varda Space
Principal Space Avionics Hardware Development Engineer
$182K–$263K
El Segundo, California, United States · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 31, 2026
- Experience
- 8+ years of direct electronics hardware design experience and 3+ years of direct space hardware experience.
- Education
- B.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering or related engineering discipline.
- Visa sponsorship
- Only hires U.S. persons permitted to access the company’s technology without an export license; defined as U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or protected individuals admitted as refugees or granted asylum.
About the job
Designs and owns flight-critical avionics electronics for Varda’s satellite buses, reentry vehicles, and payloads, from requirements through qualification, manufacturing, and operational support.
What you'll do
- Design and validate PCB electronics across schematic capture, layout, fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing test.
- Define avionics requirements and architecture, and lead product qualification and vehicle-level integration testing.
- Analyze test failures, mitigate flight risks, support mission operations, and mentor junior engineers.
What they ask for
- B.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
- 8+ years designing electronics hardware for aerospace, automotive, or other high-reliability industries; 3+ years working directly on space hardware.
- Experience owning complex electronics architecture and implementation from design to production or deployment, and taking complex PCB designs through fabrication and assembly.
- Advanced PCB design expertise; expert user of Altium and/or KiCad; hands-on electronics lab testing; programming in Python, MATLAB, or another scripting/data analysis language.
Nice to have
- Industry-leading electronic circuit design and analysis skills.
- Strong supporting knowledge of physics, math, and chemistry fundamentals.
Pay
$181,913 - $262,763/per year (base salary)
Tools
Altium, KiCad, Python, MATLAB, SPI, RS422, 1000BASE-T
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative