SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

PRINCIPAL POWER ELECTRONICS ENGINEER (CREW STARSHIP AVIONICS)

Become a part of the Crew Starship Avionics team and support the mission to revolutionize orbital flight and space travel - opening access for humankind to establish new frontiers in space, and ultimately make humans a multi-planetary species.

The Crew Starship Avionics team has taken the challenge to develop avionics for the SpaceX Human Landing System, which will soon carry astronauts to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program. Across all systems, from communications, to power, to life support, to navigation, and even creature comforts, our team's hardware will safely support astronauts on their lunar mission, while humanity looks on. This will be one of the most sophisticated and largest crewed vehicles flown in space, and will be developed at a cost and rate previously considered unthinkable in the space industry. Become a part of this fast moving and world class development team, working with super smart and motivated engineers, and achieve truly audacious goals. If you’re ready for a challenge and would like to help take humanity back to the moon then you’ve come to the right place!

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide organizational technical leadership and own successful outcomes for entire power electronics systems in high reliability spacecraft systems on Crew Starship vehicles
• Act as responsible engineer for the most challenging and flight critical hardware applications, from conception through build, qualification, and ultimately flight operations
• Provide expert level technical leadership and proactive communication across the organization, managing related risk and change, initiating introduction of new technology, managing relations outside of SpaceX, authoring processes and standards, and establish training approaches for less senior engineers
• Act as primary voice and advocate for electrical architecture trades, product requirements, component selection, design analysis, schematic capture, prototyping, bring-up, design documentation, manufacturing planning, and production test for power electronics designs
• Define and implement novel validation approaches, and create development and qualification testing campaigns to exercise designs to their limits and ensure reliable flight hardware
• Act as primary point of contact for NASA counterparts to present critical technical information, and own successful outcome of deliverables for Crew Starship milestones
• Act as primary point of contact with experts from other teams and departments to ensure that fielded systems perform their intended function while being efficient, manufacturable, and reliable; challenge assumptions and build strong professional relationships

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering
• 10+ years of professional experience designing power electronics

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Passion for spaceflight and demonstrated experience designing high quality electronics for high reliability applications
• Demonstrated experience owning successful outcomes of new hardware systems, not just incremental updates
• Experience owning system trades, pushing back on requirements, and following through with verification and validation
• Self-starter with demonstrated experience on a significant number of projects making hardware work within demanding time and resource constraints
• Expert level knowledge and experience with multiple power conversion topologies
• Expert level of proficiency with power stage component selection, analysis, and modelling, including custom magnetics
• High level of proficiency with filter design for stability, noise rejection, and surviving threat signals
• High level of proficiency with control loop design, analysis and testing
• High level of proficiency with testing power converters and working with hazardous voltages
• High level of proficiency with schematic capture and board layout, producing clean and maintainable designs, preferably in Altium or Circuit Maker
• Expert level of proficiency with circuit simulation tools and formal analysis methods, such as derating and worst case circuit analysis
• Expert level of proficiency with lab equipment for development testing of circuits and components, including sophisticated test definition, troubleshooting, data collection, and data reduction techniques
• High level of proficiency with board level rework in support of development testing
• Expert working knowledge of EMI/EMC underlying physics and specifications, along with best practices for design, and strategies for addressing test exceedances
• Significant experience producing high rate designs which are optimized for manufacturability and cost
• High level of proficiency writing software for test automation, data review, and design analysis, preferably in MATLAB or Python
• Mastery of cross functional project management skills and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines, as demonstrated on multiple programs
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Extended hours, weekend work, and occasional travel may be required to support critical project and mission milestones

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay range:
Principal Power Electronics Engineer: $170,000.00 - $235,000.00/per year

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Exempt employees are eligible for 5 days of sick leave per year.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

• 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. Learn more about the ITAR here.

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should notify the Human Resources Department at (310) 363-6000.