Skip to content

Avionics

Electrical Engineer

Xona Space Systems logoXona Space Systems$140,000–$185,000/yrBurlingame, CaliforniaFullTimePosted 2w ago
  • US citizenship
  • ITAR / US person

How this pay compares

This posting states $140k–$185k a year. Open electrical engineer jobs in California post a median of $165k a year, the middle half $140k–$188k, across 304 jobs that state their pay, so this one is within the middle half of what they post.

Electrical engineers in California: pay by town and employer

About the job

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar – the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit – Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection. ## Role Overview We are looking for an Electrical Engineer to join our satellite development team.

In this role, you will design, develop, and integrate electrical systems that power and control spacecraft propulsion systems, working closely with engineers from other subsystems to integrate your designs from concept through flight. This is a hands-on, collaborative role where you’ll lead electrical hardware design, lab testing, and debugging across low-to-high voltage subsystems.

This includes embedded microcontroller hardware, power tree design, precision sensor acquisition, valve drivers, and dedicated DC/DC converters.

You will work alongside firmware and power electronics engineers and collaborate closely with propulsion and avionics teams to ensure hardware reliability in harsh space environments. ## What You’ll Do - Hardware Design: Design and develop electrical subsystems for propulsion electronics, including embedded microcontroller hardware, sensor interfaces, valve drivers, and power conversion. - PCB Development: Lead schematic capture and multi-layer PCB layout design from breadboard prototypes to flight hardware. - Power & Driver Stages: Design, tune, and validate DC/DC converters and driver stages for inductive and resistive loads. - Analog Acquisition: Implement precision analog front-ends for critical telemetry, including current sensing (high-side/low-side), pressure transducers, and temperature monitoring. - Firmware Collaboration: Collaborate closely with embedded firmware engineers to define hardware/firmware interfaces, peripheral pin mappings, register maps, and communication protocols (CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, RS-422). - Reviews & Quality: Conduct hardware design and layout reviews.

Support component sourcing while ensuring compliance with standards and derating guidelines. - Testing & Automation: Develop and execute electrical test plans from breadboard to flight hardware, writing Python scripts for test automation and data logging. - Lab Debugging: Troubleshoot and debug electrical systems in a lab environment using test equipment (e.g., oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, electronic dynamic loads, power meters). - Documentation: Develop electrical interface documentation (ICDs) and test procedures for spacecraft subsystems. - Integration Support: Support assembly, integration, and test (AIT) activities, including environmental testing (e.g., TVAC, vibration, EMI/EMC). ## Required Qualifications - Education: B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field. - Experience: 2+ years taking mixed-signal designs from schematics to manufacturing and lab bring-up. - EDA & Modeling: Familiarity with electrical design and simulation tools (e.g., Altium, KiCad, SPICE). - Core Technical: Fundamental understanding of mixed-signal electronics, power tree design, power conversion, signal integrity, and hardware reliability in harsh space environments. - Embedded HW: Hands-on experience designing embedded microcontroller hardware and peripheral interfaces (CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, RS-422). - Power Electronics: Experience designing driver circuits for inductive loads (valves, valve drivers, solenoids) and closed-loop DC/DC converters.

High-voltage power electronics experience is a plus. - Analog Design: Strong background in precision sensor acquisition and analog signal conditioning (op-amps, filtering, ADC/DAC interfacing). - Lab Validation: Hands-on experience with electrical testing, debugging (oscilloscopes, dynamic loads, power meters), and Python test scripting. ## Preferred Qualifications - Exposure to satellite systems, avionics, or electrical power systems. - Experience with space environmental testing (e.g., TVAC, vibration, EMI/EMC per MIL-STD-461) and component derating standards (e.g., NASA EEE-INST-002). - Experience developing hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulators - Familiarity with reading embedded C/C++ to collaborate seamlessly with firmware engineers during low-level driver bring-up and boundary-scan debugging.

For U.S. Roles:To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). For U.K.

Roles:To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC). For Canada Roles:Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

From Xona Space Systems's job posting, checked 7 Nov 2026. The employer's own page is the final word on requirements and availability.

Selected agencies hiring now

These agencies and apps pay SpaceJobs.Now a referral fee when someone we introduce is placed or signs up. It costs you nothing and never changes your pay. Employers' own jobs below keep their own order.

Sponsored

Sponsored jobs from job networks, which pay SpaceJobs.Now when you click one.

Free tools for this application: check your resume against this job, answer the application's questions or see every free tool.

New avionics and electrical engineering jobs in space in California, by email

One email a week with the newest ones, straight from the employers' own careers sites, with the pay each posting states. Free, stop anytime.

About Xona Space Systems

Navigation infrastructure: centimeter-level positioning from low Earth orbit.

Pay on its listings: 84.3% of its open jobs state an hourly rate

How it pays: Paid as an employee on Xona Space Systems's own payroll (salaried or hourly, as each posting states).

More open jobs at Xona Space Systems

More avionics and electrical engineering jobs in space

An avionics or electrical engineer?

One profile for every employer here. Space companies and their recruiters ask us for people with a specific degree, clearance, specialty or location: add yours once, and when a job fits, we introduce you, only with your yes. Free.

Create my profile

Xona Space Systems openings, sent to you weekly

Each week we send the newest postings from Xona Space Systems's own careers site, along with similar openings at other space employers. It costs nothing and you can stop anytime.