Lead PCB Designer

Overview

Space

X was founded to enable humanity to explore the stars. Space

X is actively developing technologies to make this possible, with the goal of enabling human life on Mars.

LEAD PCB DESIGNER (STARSHIELD)

Starshield leverages Space

X's Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads. This is an opportunity to build and lead a new PCB design team for Starshield. In addition to hiring top-notch PCB designers, this role requires close collaboration with electrical and mechanical engineering teams, as well as with supply chain, manufacturing, and reliability teams to design boards that meet performance and reliability requirements.

As the Starshield satellite and ground system designs evolve, you will be expected to learn new technologies, mentor other designers, and continually look for opportunities to improve designs and reduce layout time.

• Lead and hire a team of high-performance printed circuit board (PCB) designers
• Establish priorities and projects with clear scope and objectives
• Develop growth plans for team members to develop their capabilities
• Review and guide new projects to maintain cost and performance objectives
• Drive the development of the electronic data management solutions
• Determine layer stackup; perform component package selection, component placement, routing feasibility studies, and signal routing of digital, analog, RF, and power conversion of PCBs
• Create and release documentation for fabrication of PCBs
• Collaborate with internal teams and PCB vendors to continually improve design rules, constraints, and design-for-test and manufacture guidelines
• Standardize and maintain release of documentation for fabrication of PCBs
• Utilize PCB design tools; maintain and evaluate new tools, and train team members to use tools

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 2+ years of PCB design experience
• 1+ years of experience leading teams and/or projects

• Experience designing boards for high-volume production and executing on tight deadlines
• Deep understanding of DFM/DFA/DFT rules and PCB fabrication process; mastery of tools such as Valor Enterprise
• 2+ years of experience with PCB layout and routing in areas such as modern passive and active electronics components, surface-mount, RF components, ball-grid array and similar fine pitch, or high pin density components
• Experience with ECAD libraries and library configuration management
• Experience with Mentor Xpedition and/or Altium Designer
• 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
• Experience with MIL-STD, commercial, and IPC standards and design
• Experience with scripting and automation
• Professional experience leading a team, providing technical direction and strong mentoring skills
• Excellent communication skills for articulating complex concepts, problems, and solutions across all levels within the organization
• Active TS/SCI clearance or the ability to obtain and maintain one

• Able to work extended hours and weekends as needed to support critical path development and/or critical on-orbit operations
• An active clearance may provide the opportunity to work on sensitive Space
  
  X missions; if so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol testing

Pay range:
Lead PCB Designer: $ - $ per year

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related knowledge, education, and experience. Those with an active clearance will receive a 10% differential, up to an additional $15,000 annually, once officially briefed into a classified program.

Base salary is part of Space

X’s total rewards package, which may include long-term incentives (stock or stock options), discretionary bonuses, and the ability to purchase…