Principal Electrical Engineer, Avionics

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in August 2025. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.

Vast is looking for a Principal Electrical Engineer, Avionics, reporting to the Senior Manager, Avionics Engineering, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. As a Principal Electrical Engineer, Avionics, you will be responsible for developing, testing, and maintaining avionics hardware for our state-of-the-art commercial space station.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of 2-3 engineers to deliver products on time.
• Partner with software, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing teams to rapidly design, develop and test highly reliable electronics for our state-of-the-art commercial space station.
• Perform component selection, design analysis, schematic capture, circuit board design, prototyping, board bring up, debugging, circuit validation, and design documentation for electrical designs.
• Analyze and troubleshoot electronic assemblies, define new processes, design circuits/fixtures/tools, and identify opportunities for improvement in both products and processes.
• Support or act as responsible engineer for flight hardware, from conception through build, qualification, flight integration, and ultimately flight operations.
• Support build and process improvement through troubleshooting build problems and work to simplify and streamline recurring work to enable higher reliability of the avionics hardware.
• Support mission operations by providing real-time input during flight, completing data reviews, monitoring hardware performance, and working with partners to simplify operation of our avionics systems.
• Work with experts from other teams and departments to ensure that fielded systems perform their function while being efficient, manufacturable, and reliable.
• Define acceptance testing and qualification requirements of new and existing hardware, perform development and qualification testing to prove out design, and formally document test results.
• Travel to launch sites for testing and/or operations.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or other engineering discipline.
• 8+ years of experience with avionics design, analysis, and/or unit level testing.
• 1+ years of experience leading a team of engineers.
• Experience with avionics test equipment such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, current probes.
• Experience with analog, digital, or mixed signal multi-layer PCB design.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Experience with PCBA design and Altium or similar software.
• Comfortable communicating technical topics to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to creatively solve problems and weigh against multi-disciplinary requirements together while assessing risk and making design and development decisions.
• Understanding of electrical schematics and electronics manufacturing to analyze and improve test coverage.
• Hands-on experience with sizing, installing and troubleshooting various electronic components.
• Experience with wire harness design and build, including associated sub-components.
• Experience with NX or similar CAD software.
• Competence with electrical test equipment (multimeters, oscilloscopes, network analyzers, power supplies, etc.)
• Creative problem solver that can bring multiple disciplines together with the ability to assess risk and make design and development decisions without all available data.
• Self-motivated with strong learning, multi-tasking, organizational, communication and documentation skills.
• Strong sense of accountability and integrity with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere.

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time to support launch campaigns.

Pay Range:

• $165,000-$200,000 for Staff
• $200,000-$235,000 for Principal

Salary Range: California

$165,000 - $235,000 USD

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 15 days of vacation for non-exempt staff, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, free catered meals and snacks and beverages, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, One Medical membership, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks.