System Architect - Space Electronics

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Anduril Imaging team develops state-of-the-art imaging systems across both hardware and software, deployed to tackle the most significant security challenges of America and its allies. The team is heavily involved in utilizing computer vision, perception, electro-optical, infrared, and sensor data to give the US and its allies an advantage. We are extending that capability into orbit — building space-based EO/IR and sensing payloads under a New Space philosophy: aggressive schedules, commercial-cadence engineering, and a relentless bias toward flying hardware. Our standard is to take a payload from architecture to orbit in a year or less, not the multi-year timelines that have traditionally defined space programs.

ABOUT THE JOB

As a System Architect on the Anduril Imaging team, you will own the electronics architecture for space-bound imaging payloads and drive their design from concept through flight. This is a system-level role for an engineer who can hold the whole payload in their head — defining the electrical architecture, making the build-versus-buy and COTS-versus-rad-hard tradeoffs that keep schedule and cost in check, and then going hands-on to lay out, bring up, and qualify the hardware. You will set the technical direction for power, sensor, and interface electronics, and remain hands-on to see your individual designs take flight. You will work in rapid design cycles where the goal is to get capable, robust hardware into space in twelve months or less. You will make well-informed engineering judgments about which requirements are load-bearing and which aren't, iterate on real hardware, and demonstrate the discipline to design for manufacturability, test, and EMI/EMC compliance from day one. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy and be a technical anchor for less experienced engineers on the team.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own the electrical architecture for imaging payloads, partitioning the system, defining power, sensor, data, and interface electronics, and driving the architectural tradeoffs (COTS vs. rad-hard, performance vs. schedule vs. cost) that enable a rapid path to orbit.
• Lead the design, layout, bring-up, and qualification of PCBAs spanning analog, mixed-signal, FPGAs, and power electronics for EO/IR sensor systems.
• Translate sensor and system performance models into electrical requirements, and push back on requirements that don't earn their place on the critical path.
• Drive rapid design-build-test cycles: prototype quickly, characterize on the bench, iterate on real hardware, and converge on flight-ready designs without unnecessary cycles.
• Design for the space environment (radiation, thermal extremes, vacuum, vibration, and launch loads) and own the analysis and testing (TVAC, vibe, EMI/EMC) that proves it.
• Bake in design for manufacturability and assembly (DFM/DFA) from the first schematic so designs scale cleanly toward low-rate production as programs mature.
• Lead board bring-up, integration, and troubleshooting in the lab and during environmental and integration testing, using standard bench equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, DMMs, etc.).
• Partner closely with firmware, optics, mechanical, systems, and program teams to drive integration and close out anomalies fast.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to other electrical engineers, and serve as a design-review and decision-making anchor for the electronics scope.
• Document architectures, designs, analyses, and test results to a standard that supports flight readiness and program reviews.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years of experience in electrical engineering spanning system-level architecture, electronics design, and hands-on test, with a track record of owning designs end to end.
• A degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ownership of electronics architecture for a complex electromechanical or sensor system, including the tradeoff decisions that shaped it.
• Strong analog, digital, mixed-signal, and power electronics design experience, with deep schematic capture and PCB layout proficiency.
• Proven ability to take hardware from architecture through bring-up, integration, and qualification — including hands-on debug in the lab.
• Experience delivering hardware on aggressive timelines and working in rapid, iterative design cycles.
• Excellent engineering judgment, problem-solving, and the ability to make sound decisions with incomplete information under schedule pressure.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across a multidisciplinary engineering team.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years of experience in electrical engineering spanning system-level architecture, electronics design, and hands-on test, with a track record of owning designs end to end.
• Direct experience designing electronics for space, especially New Space / commercial-cadence programs that flew hardware in a year or less.
• Familiarity with the space environment and qualification: radiation effects (TID/SEE), rad-hard and rad-tolerant part selection, COTS-for-space approaches, TVAC, vibration, and EMI/EMC.
• Experience with EO/IR, RF, optical, or other sensor and communication systems.
• Experience designing for manufacturability and assembly, and transitioning proven designs toward low-rate production to make them more robust and lower cost.
• Familiarity with analytical tools and programming languages such as MATLAB, Python, or C++.
• Understanding of system integration processes and workflows in aerospace or defense environments.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading design reviews.

US Salary Range 147000 - 196000 USD