Founding Lead Avionics Engineer
Pillar Space
Founding Lead Avionics Engineer
Pillar Space
Reusable orbital infrastructure for payload hosting
Equity: 0.3% – 1% depending on experience
We're a stealth team building space hardware at the edge of what's currently possible — high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. While we can't share full details yet, our founding and early engineering team includes talent from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Impulse Space, the group includes people who've pulled off feats almost no one else on Earth has.
We are seeking a Lead Avionics Engineer to own our spacecraft avionics from first principles — the electronics that power, command, sense, and communicate for the entire vehicle.
This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only define and execute the avionics architecture, but also help build the avionics team, set technical standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to develop flight-grade hardware.
This is not a narrow board-design role. You will own the full avionics system: flight computers and data handling, power conditioning and distribution, sensor and actuator interfaces, RF communications, and the harnessing that ties it all together — plus the test equipment and qualification campaigns that prove it all works. You will partner closely with flight software on processor selection, interfaces, and bring-up, and make system-level trades across electronics, software, mass, power, thermal, and reliability.
The ideal candidate has direct experience with spacecraft avionics, flight electronics design, hardware/software integration, environmental qualification, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have led real hardware systems from concept toward flight, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and can operate independently in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company's core technical challenges.
Own the avionics architecture, from early design through development, integration, test, qualification, and flight operations.
Lead design of flight electronics: flight computers, data handling units, power conditioning and distribution units, sensor and actuator interface boards, and motor, valve, and heater drivers.
Define power distribution and protection: solar array and battery interfaces, regulation, load switching, fault protection, and grounding and bonding.
Architect redundancy, cross-strapping, fault containment, and failure-tolerant designs appropriate for flight-grade autonomous systems.
Integrate GNC sensors and actuators (e.g., IMUs, star trackers, sun sensors, GNSS receivers, reaction wheels, magnetorquers), propulsion electronics, and payloads with well-defined electrical and data interfaces.
Define electrical interfaces and data buses across the vehicle (e.g., SpaceWire, CAN, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553, RS-422/485, SPI, I2C, UART) and own the interface control documents with every subsystem.
Own RF and communications hardware: radio and antenna selection, link budgets, and spectrum coordination with the ground segment.
Make build-vs-buy trades across COTS, upscreened, and rad-hard parts and units, and manage vendors and subcontractors through delivery.
Lead schematic capture, PCB layout, and design reviews, including worst-case circuit analysis, parts stress derating, board-level thermal analysis, and signal and power integrity.
Design for the space environment: total ionizing dose, single-event effects, latchup protection, EMI/EMC, outgassing, and thermal-vacuum performance.
Own harness design: wiring diagrams, connector and pinout definition, routing, and fabrication and test alongside mechanical and integration teams.
Build the avionics test infrastructure: bench test equipment, EGSE, flatsats, hardware-in-the-loop rigs, and automated functional and acceptance testing.
Plan and execute qualification and acceptance campaigns: vibration, shock, thermal cycling, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC, and radiation testing.
Partner with flight software on processor and FPGA/SoC selection, board bring-up, and debugging, driving root-cause resolution across hardware and software on the bench and during integrated test campaigns.
Provide technical leadership across avionics, power electronics, RF, harnessing, and electrical test efforts.
Help hire, manage, mentor, and develop avionics and electrical engineers as the team grows.
Establish hardware engineering processes: design standards, design reviews, parts and materials control, configuration management, requirements traceability, and verification discipline appropriate for flight-grade hardware.
Help define avionics requirements, interfaces, power, mass, and data budgets, verification plans, and failure-handling approaches for the vehicle.
Work closely with flight software, GNC, propulsion, thermal, mechanical, systems, ground software, and mission operations to close interfaces, deliver flight units, and field an integrated flight system.
Work closely with the founders and early engineering team to shape the technical roadmap, engineering culture, hiring plan, and long-term avionics strategy.
Represent the avionics function in cross-disciplinary design reviews, customer conversations, investor diligence, vendor discussions, and mission planning as needed.
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
8+ years designing, building, testing, or flight-qualifying avionics or electronics for spacecraft, launch vehicles, aircraft, robotics, or other high-reliability systems.
Prior experience leading technical workstreams, managing engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, or building high-performing engineering teams.
Demonstrated ability to own complex hardware systems from early architecture through design, fabrication, test, qualification, and operational readiness.
Strong fundamentals in analog and digital circuit design, power electronics, embedded processors, and signal integrity.
Expert proficiency with schematic capture and PCB design tools (e.g., Altium, Cadence, KiCad) and a track record of taking boards from schematic through layout, fabrication, assembly, and bring-up.
Experience designing hardware that interfaces with real sensors, actuators, and processors: power supplies, motor and valve drivers, data buses, and mixed-signal front ends.
Comfort reading and writing low-level firmware or test scripts (e.g., C, Python) and partnering with software engineers through board bring-up and debugging.
Experience with fault-tolerant hardware design: redundancy, cross-strapping, fault containment, overcurrent protection, and safe power-up and power-down behavior.
Experience taking hardware beyond the bench into integration, environmental testing, hardware-in-the-loop, or representative testbeds.
Experience with disciplined hardware development practices: design reviews, configuration management, component derating, and documented test procedures.
Lab fluency: comfortable with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power supplies, electronic loads, JTAG/SWD debuggers, EGSE, and test automation.
Ability to work independently with limited direction, identify the right next problem to solve, and drive technical work from ambiguity to qualified flight hardware.
Ability to make practical system-level tradeoffs across performance, schedule, cost, mass, power, reliability, testability, and mission risk.
Ability to lead through influence in a cross-functional environment spanning flight software, GNC, propulsion, thermal, mechanical, systems, and mission operations.
We do not expect every candidate to have all of the following. The strongest candidates will likely have depth in some areas and the ability to quickly learn the others.
Demonstrated flight heritage — avionics you helped design or build that has flown and operated on orbit.
Experience leading avionics, electrical, power, RF, or hardware test teams.
Experience managing engineers in a startup, aerospace company, defense contractor, launch company, robotics company, or other high-reliability technical environment.
Experience designing flight computers or data handling units, including processor, memory, and FPGA/SoC selection (e.g., Xilinx/AMD Zynq, Microchip PolarFire, rad-hard microcontrollers).
Experience with spacecraft electrical power systems: solar arrays, lithium-ion batteries, maximum power point tracking, and power distribution and protection.
Experience designing for radiation: part selection and screening, TID and SEE analysis, latchup protection, and radiation test campaigns.
Experience with GNC sensors and actuators, or propulsion electronics such as valve drivers, pressure transducers, and thruster controllers.
Experience with RF and communications hardware: S-band, X-band, or optical links, link budgets, and antenna integration.
Experience with spacecraft data buses and protocols, including SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, CAN, or CCSDS.
Experience with FPGA development in HDL (VHDL/Verilog) and hardware/software co-design.
Experience with EMI/EMC design and test (e.g., MIL-STD-461) and grounding, bonding, and shielding strategies.
Experience with flight harness design and fabrication, connector selection, and wiring standards.
Experience designing test infrastructure developed internally, including flatsats, EGSE, HIL rigs, and automated acceptance test stations.
Experience with environmental qualification and acceptance testing: vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, and thermal cycling.
Experience with workmanship and parts standards for space hardware (e.g., IPC J-STD-001 Space Addendum, NASA-STD-8739, EEE-INST-002, GSFC-STD-7000/GEVS).
Experience with reliability and mission assurance: FMEA, fault trees, worst-case circuit analysis, parts stress analysis, and hazard analysis.
Experience supporting avionics from prototype through flight operations, anomaly response, and post-flight reconstruction.
Experience in early-stage startups, small high-performing teams, or environments where engineers must own broad technical scope.
Experience recruiting, interviewing, closing, and onboarding exceptional technical talent.
You are an exceptional avionics engineer with strong fundamentals and the ability to reason from first principles.
You are a technical leader who raises the bar for the people around you.
You have managed, mentored, or led engineers before and know how to create clarity, accountability, and momentum in ambiguous environments.
You are comfortable owning large, ambiguous, mission-critical problems without waiting for detailed direction.
You can move fluidly between architecture, schematics, the bench, integration, test, team leadership, and system-level tradeoffs.
You are not just interested in drawing schematics; you want to see your hardware power up, fly, and survive real environments under real constraints.
You are excited by flight-grade hardware that has to work the first time and keep working when things go wrong.
You are willing to learn unfamiliar domains quickly and deeply, whether that means flight software, FPGAs, radiation effects, RF, power electronics, GNC, or flight operations.
You have strong opinions loosely held. You can defend a technical position, accept feedback, change course when the system demands it, and make appropriate tradeoffs in support of the mission.
You are collaborative, low-ego, and rigorous.
You want founding-level ownership and are motivated by building a company, not just completing assigned tasks.
You are excited to help build not only the product, but also the engineering organization behind it.
Health Insurance — We cover the full base premium for Blue Shield's Bronze plan. If you would like more coverage, you can upgrade to the Gold plan and cover the difference in premium. You are also welcome to add dependents and a spouse to your plan.
Dental & Vision — We cover the base premiums for both dental and vision through Guardian. Coverage for dependents and a spouse is available as well.
401(k) — We offer a 401(k) with a 4% company match.
Equity — You will receive meaningful equity in the company, so you share in what we build together.
PTO & Sick Time — We offer unlimited PTO and sick time, and we trust you to take the time you need to rest and recharge.
Build ambitious, world-first space hardware alongside an exceptional technical team.
Own the avionics that power, command, and connect the entire vehicle.
Build and lead one of the most important technical functions at the company.
Work on systems where hardware, software, autonomy, and operations all have to come together.
Define the product, culture, technical standards, and trajectory of a breakthrough company from the beginning.
Take on significant technical and organizational challenges and create outsized impact.
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a: (i) U.S. citizen or national; (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card holder; (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157; (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158; or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Reusable orbital infrastructure for payload hosting
Pillar Space builds reusable satellites that stay in orbit and act as rentable infrastructure for other payloads. A customer launches a payload in a standardized adapter, and Pillar Space’s satellite autonomously docks with it in low Earth orbit, then supplies power, data, thermal management, mobility and mission operations for the lease, with an optional capsule re-entry to return finished products to Earth. This on-orbit docking-based service lets customers test and operate in microgravity without owning their own spacecraft. The team includes veterans from Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicles and alumni from SpaceX and Impulse Space, backed by South Park Commons, with a first mission window targeted for 2028 to provide persistent orbital infrastructure for biotech, semiconductors, materials, and defense clients.
Explore more opportunities at Pillar Space