Avionics Mechanical Engineer

Avionics Integration Engineer

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 turbo machinery-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.

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.

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, form boards, and installation documentation.
• Create release, inspection, and configuration-control processes for schematics, harness drawings,…