PCB Designer - Starlink
No salary listed
Junior
Bachelor's
Bastrop, TX, USA
In Person
Hardware EngineeringBoard & Electronics Design
No H1B Sponsorship
US Citizenship Required
About the job
Requirements
- A bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and at least 1 year of professional PCB layout experience, or at least 3 years of professional PCB layout experience in lieu of a degree; internships and club or project work apply.
- Preferred experience includes 2 or more years of PCB layout and routing involving modern passive and active electronic components, surface-mount technology, RF components, ball-grid arrays and similar fine-pitch components, or high-pin-density components.
- At least 1 year of experience with ECAD libraries and library configuration management is preferred.
- Experience with schematic capture and PCB layout software such as Xpedition, Allegro, Altium, or KiCad is preferred.
- Experience with layout of mixed analog and digital designs, high-speed buses, FPGA, DRAM and CPU designs, power supplies, DC-DC converters, transmission lines, impedance-controlled traces, and power traces is preferred.
- Understanding of design for manufacturability, assembly, and test is preferred.
- Proficiency in generating fabrication outputs such as Gerber, ODB++, IPC-2581, and drill files; DFM/DFA analysis; constraint-driven design; and collaboration with libraries, including symbols, footprints, and 3D models, is preferred.
- Experience with MIL-STD, commercial, and IPC standards and design is preferred.
- Proficiency in writing code and/or using AI tools to automate CAD workflows, including Python, Altium or Xpedition scripting, or Allegro SKILL, is preferred.
- Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission-critical deadlines.
- Applicants must be U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylees, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Responsibilities
- Determine layer stackup, perform component package selection and placement, and conduct routing feasibility studies for printed circuit boards.
- Perform multilayer PCB layout for boards with 2–20 or more layers, including component placement and high-speed digital, analog, RF, and power routing.
- Perform DRC/ERC checks, peer reviews, and design audits; collaborate with electrical and mechanical engineers to capture design requirements.
- Manage high-speed design constraints to ensure signal and power integrity, thermal performance, impedance control, and EMI/EMC compliance.
- Create documentation required for PCB and PCBA fabrication and assembly.
- Analyze designs for manufacturability and incorporate production feedback from fabrication houses and assembly partners to reduce costs and improve yield.
- Collaborate with internal manufacturing teams and PCB vendors to improve design rules, constraints, and design-for-test and manufacturing guidelines.
- Use PCB design tools, maintain and evaluate new tools, and train team members to use them.
- Partner with hardware development engineers during schematic development, provide expertise and recommendations at design reviews, and iterate designs to develop solutions across varied design mixes, including radio phased arrays and solar power converters.
Desired Qualifications
- Demonstrated cross-functional project management skills and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines are preferred.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills are preferred.
About the company
SpaceX builds and launches reusable rockets and spacecraft for NASA, the military, and companies, and it runs Starlink, a satellite internet service for homes and businesses. In 2020, its Dragon capsule became the first privately built spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Its Falcon 9 rocket lands its first stage so the booster can fly again, which cuts launch costs, while Starlink beams internet from low-orbit satellites to small dishes for a monthly fee. SpaceX also owns xAI, maker of the Grok chatbot and owner of the social network X, and is building Starship, a fully reusable rocket meant to carry people to the Moon and Mars. Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, and it is based in Starbase, Texas.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Starbase, Texas
Founded
2002
Get referred to SpaceX
See people who can refer or advise you
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Starlink demand keeps compounding: subscribers doubled to 12 million in the year to June 2026.
- Room to grow: SpaceX listed 2,693 open roles in October 2026, over a third of them for Starlink.
- Rivals rent its AI supercomputers: Claude maker Anthropic agreed in May 2026 to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion a month.
What critics are saying
- Stock grants swing hard: shares closed between $108 and $211 in the four months after the June 2026 IPO.
- Expect long weeks: 1,724 of SpaceX's 2,693 job posts in October 2026 mention extended hours and weekend work.
- AI spending outruns sales: SpaceX put $15.8 billion into AI data centers in the June 2026 quarter, double its revenue.
What makes SpaceX unique
- SpaceX is the world's busiest launcher by far: its 165 orbital launches in 2025 were nearly double China's total.
- Starlink carries the profits: it earned $1.7 billion in the June 2026 quarter, while rockets and AI lost $1.8 billion.
- Elon Musk has the final say: super-voting shares give him about 82% of shareholder votes after the June 2026 IPO.
Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?
Benefits
- Benefits and Perks - Our employees' well-being is important to us and essential to our capacity to do extraordinary things. We offer a wide variety of programs to support the health, wellness, and financial security of our employees and their families.