Avionics Mechanical Engineer
Apply on Orbital Operations's site
About Orbital Operations
At Orbital Operations, we’re building the future of dynamic space maneuvering. Our mission is to enable rapid-response orbital capabilities, executing maneuvers without hesitation and without regret.
Our flagship technology, the Cryogenic Propulsion Management System (CPMS), is redefining what’s possible in space mobility. Designed for military and commercial spacecraft, CPMS delivers sustained, high-thrust maneuverability in geosynchronous and cislunar orbits. It integrates low-loss cryogenic storage, reverse Brayton cycle (RBC) thermal control, and turbomachinery-driven propulsion to make spacecraft more agile, resilient, and responsive.
Beyond defense, CPMS is poised to transform commercial orbital logistics. By powering next-generation orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs), it can slash LEO-to-GEO transit times from six months to just eight hours—unlocking new possibilities for satellite servicing, deployment, and beyond.
Join us in building the infrastructure for a more maneuverable and mission-ready space domain.
About the Role
We are looking for an Avionics Integration Engineer to own the electrical integration of our spacecraft from early architecture through vehicle build, system testing, launch-site operations, and flight.
This is a hands-on role at the intersection of avionics, propulsion, mechanical systems, flight software, manufacturing, and test. You will translate vehicle-level requirements into electrical interfaces, harness designs, channel assignments, configuration files, test procedures, and released hardware.
You will be responsible for ensuring that sensors, valves, actuators, controllers, power systems, communications hardware, and flight computers operate together as a complete system. You will also help build the standards, tools, laboratories, supplier base, and integration processes required to take Orbital Operations from its first vehicle into repeatable production.
Responsibilities
Vehicle Avionics Integration
- Own end-to-end electrical integration across the spacecraft, propulsion system, cryogenic systems, ground-support equipment, and test infrastructure.
- Serve as the primary avionics interface to propulsion, fluids, structures, mechanisms, thermal, flight software, guidance, navigation and control, manufacturing, and test teams.
- Gather and maintain vehicle-wide requirements for sensors, actuators, power loads, communications interfaces, instrumentation, and high-speed data acquisition.
- Develop and maintain channel assignments, pin mappings, network architecture, power budgets, interface-control documentation, and electrical integration requirements.
- Ensure consistency between electrical schematics, harness drawings, flight-software configuration, telemetry definitions, and installed flight hardware.
- Lead electrical interface definition and verification for valves, pressure and temperature sensors, ignition systems, pumps, motors, heaters, controllers, and other spacecraft hardware.
- Identify integration risks early and drive technical issues to closure across multiple engineering disciplines.
Harnessing and Electrical Design
- Own electrical harnessing from system architecture through schematic development, routing, formboard creation, manufacturing, inspection, installation, and acceptance testing.
- Design flight and test harnesses for power distribution, Ethernet, CAN, serial communications, discrete signals, analog instrumentation, and other spacecraft interfaces.
- Select and qualify connectors, wire, cable, backshells, shielding, grounding, sleeving, strain relief, and environmental-protection solutions.
- Perform trade studies to optimize harness designs for reliability, signal integrity, electromagnetic compatibility, mass, manufacturability, maintainability, and cost.
- Collaborate with mechanical engineers to establish harness routing, mounting, bend-radius, separation, access, thermal, and service-loop requirements.
- Develop and maintain electrical schematics, connection diagrams, harness drawings, bills of material, formboards, and installation documentation.
- Create release, inspection, and configuration-control processes for schematics, harness drawings, formboards, and completed assemblies.
Integration and Test
- Develop and execute avionics integration and verification campaigns at the component, subsystem, vehicle, and mission levels.
- Create test plans, procedures, automated scripts, data-review tools, and pass/fail criteria for electrical and avionics testing.
- Support hardware-in-the-loop testing, propulsion-system testing, cryogenic testing, vehicle checkout, launch-site operations, and mission readiness reviews.
- Develop automated tools, primarily in Python, for commanding hardware, analyzing telemetry, validating channel mappings, and identifying anomalous system behavior.
- Troubleshoot electrical, communications, software, and instrumentation issues during vehicle manufacturing and test.
- Review test and flight data to verify performance, investigate anomalies, and recommend corrective actions.
- Establish electrical checkouts and regression tests that identify workmanship, configuration, and interface issues before higher-level integration.
- Own or support vehicle off-nominal alerts, limits, telemetry displays, and electrical launch-commit criteria.
Manufacturing and Supplier Development
- Work directly with technicians and manufacturing engineers to build, inspect, test, install, and troubleshoot flight harnesses and avionics assemblies.
- Develop workmanship standards, build specifications, inspection criteria, and acceptance-test requirements for in-house and supplier-produced electrical hardware.
- Identify, onboard, and manage suppliers for connectors, cable, harness assemblies, avionics components, and electrical test equipment.
- Conduct make-versus-buy evaluations and generate estimates for component demand, lead time, nonrecurring costs, and production quantities.
- Support procurement by developing technical requirements, reviewing quotations, approving substitutions, and resolving supplier nonconformances.
- Design and build avionics laboratories, electrical ground-support equipment, breakout boxes, test racks, and vehicle checkout equipment.
- Support failure investigations, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and continuous improvement of avionics manufacturing and integration processes.
Team and Process Development
- Help establish the standards, tools, documentation, and technical-review processes for a growing avionics organization.
- Participate in recruiting and interviewing avionics engineers, PCB designers, electromechanical engineers, manufacturing engineers, and harness technicians.
- Create training materials and component libraries for electrical schematic, harness-design, and configuration-management tools.
- Mentor engineers and technicians in electrical design, integration, troubleshooting, and test.
- Communicate system status, technical risks, and resource requirements clearly to engineering and company leadership.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related technical field.
- 3+ years of professional experience with avionics, electrical systems, vehicle integration, harnessing, instrumentation, or complex electromechanical systems.
- Experience designing, building, integrating, or testing electrical harnesses and avionics hardware.
- Experience reading and creating electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, pinout documentation, and interface-control documents.
- Working knowledge of electrical power distribution, grounding, shielding, signal integrity, and electromagnetic compatibility.
- Experience troubleshooting electrical hardware using oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, logic analyzers, network tools, and other laboratory equipment.
- Experience using scripting or programming tools, preferably Python, to automate testing or analyze engineering data.
- Ability to work directly with flight or test hardware in a fast-moving development environment.
- Ability to communicate effectively across electrical, mechanical, software, manufacturing, propulsion, and test teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience developing avionics for spacecraft, launch vehicles, aircraft, autonomous vehicles, defense systems, robotics, or similarly complex systems.
- Experience owning vehicle-level avionics integration through manufacturing, qualification, launch, or flight operations.
- Experience with electrical CAD and harness-design software such as Capital, Zuken E3, Siemens NX, Altium, OrCAD, AutoCAD Electrical, or similar tools.
- Experience with Ethernet, CAN, RS-422/485, SPI, I²C, SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, discrete signals, analog sensors, and high-speed instrumentation.
- Experience with flight-software channel mapping, calibration databases, telemetry definitions, and hardware configuration files.
- Experience developing or operating hardware-in-the-loop systems, automated test equipment, data-acquisition systems, or electrical ground-support equipment.
- Familiarity with spaceflight workmanship and electrical standards, including IPC/WHMA-A-620, NASA-STD-8739, or equivalent standards.
- Experience with environmental testing, including vibration, thermal-vacuum, electromagnetic compatibility, and qualification or acceptance testing.
- Experience with high-voltage ignition systems, motor controllers, electrically actuated valves, cryogenic instrumentation, or propulsion-system avionics.
- Experience qualifying and managing harness or electrical-component suppliers.
- Experience leading anomaly investigations and making vehicle-readiness recommendations based on test or flight data.
- Demonstrated ability to establish systems and processes where little existing infrastructure is available.
About Orbital Operations
High Thrust Space Vehicles for Satellite Defense