Lead Hardware Reliability Engineer, Electrical (Starshield)

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.   

This is an opportunity to build and lead an electrical hardware reliability team for Starshield. In addition to hiring top-notch electrical engineers you will work on identifying, analyzing, and resolving hardware failures to improve the robustness and longevity of our PCBAs. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams, including electrical, mechanical, software, and supply chain, to enhance the overall reliability of Starshield hardware. This is an opportunity to work on cutting-edge R&D technology and some of the most complex applications of electrical engineering in the industry

• →Lead and hire a team of electrical hardware reliability engineers supporting Starshield production
• →Provide technical mentorship and guidance to team members leading root cause investigations of electrical hardware
• →Align goals and priorities with production and partner engineering teams to achieve program reliability and rate objectives
• →Collaborate with team members to create personalized career growth plans that build their technical capabilities and accelerate progress toward their professional goals
• →Drive corrective action to products not meeting design specifications through data driven decisions using yield and defect monitoring to identify common failure modes
• →Proactively escalate major hardware concerns, secure appropriate resources, and maintain clear communication to drive timely resolution and team alignment
• →Maintain thorough documentation of failure analysis findings, test results, and corrective actions
• →Collaborate with on-orbit reliability team, driving timely improvements to production through on-orbit investigation findings

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, physics, or other engineering discipline
• 3+ years of experience in hardware development, failure analysis, or reliability engineering (internships and co-ops acceptable)
• 1+ years of experience leading a project, team, or people

• Strong analytical skills with an excellent ability to communicate and collaborate with partners in all disciplines at multiple levels in the organization
• Demonstrated ability to advocate for and implement robust solutions that stand the test of time
• Experience deploying large-scale and/or high impact solutions in a manufacturing environment
• Experience with digital and mixed-signal designs, power electronics, or RF electronics using oscilloscopes, signal generators, digital multimeters, power supplies, and soldering equipment
• Demonstrated experience troubleshooting and root causing electrical hardware failures
• PCBA Fabrication experience (familiar with solder, flux, underfill, staking, reflow, temperature control, etc.)
• Experience with environmental testing such as HALT/HASS, thermal, vibration, and TVAC
• Experience with RF test equipment (e.g. vector network analyzer, spectrum analyzer) and concepts such as S-parameters, impedance matching, and antenna designs
• Active Top Secret, Top Secret SCI, or DOE Level Q clearance, or the ability and willingness to obtain one

• Able to work extended hours and weekends as needed
• An active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions; if so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol tests

• 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 reach out to EEOCompliance@spacex.com.