Principal Avionics Engineer

Redondo Beach, CA / Denver, CO – 100% onsite

Head of Engineering

Full-Time

Engineering / Avionics

20% of the time

Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Parallax Space is seeking a Principal Avionics Engineer to architect and own our core avionics offerings for space vehicles. This person will define the avionics product line that Parallax builds once and deploys across spacecraft buses, hosted payloads, and integrated mission systems: command and data handling, flight computing, power distribution and control, spacecraft networking, and payload and vehicle interfaces.

The Principal Avionics Engineer will set the technical baseline for how Parallax avionics are architected, designed, qualified, and produced. They will take avionics from architecture and trade studies through schematic and PCB design, bring-up, integration, environmental qualification, and flight, and will make sure those designs scale into repeatable production.

This is a foundational, high-ownership role for an experienced avionics leader who can be the senior technical authority on avionics, build the team around them, and still get hands-on in the lab when the hardware needs it.

• Architect Parallax’s core avionics offerings: a modular, reusable avionics product line that can be configured across spacecraft buses, hosted payloads, and mission systems.
• Define the avionics architecture, including flight computers, C&DH, power distribution and control units, spacecraft networking, payload interface electronics, and harnessing.
• Set processor, FPGA/SoC, memory, redundancy, and fault‑tolerance strategies matched to mission class, orbit, and radiation environment.
• Define internal and external interface standards (e.g., Ethernet, Space Wire, CAN, RS-422/485, LVDS, SPI, I²C) so avionics modules work together and plug into customer payloads.
• Lead trade studies that balance performance, size, weight, power, cost, reliability, radiation tolerance, and manufacturability, including make/buy and supplier decisions.
• Own the avionics product roadmap and technology maturation plan, moving new capabilities from prototype to flight heritage.

• Lead the design of analog, digital, mixed-signal, and power electronics for flight hardware.
• Guide schematic capture, PCB layout, stack-up and material selection, component selection, derating, and worst‑case circuit analysis.
• Lead board bring‑up, lab debugging, and anomaly investigations at the board and system level.
• Define EE/software interface requirements with flight software and firmware teams, including fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR).
• Lead radiation effects analysis and parts selection strategy (rad‑hard, rad‑tolerant, and screened COTS).

• Develop avionics requirements, ICDs, verification plans, and test procedures that roll up into the spacecraft technical baseline.
• Architect and build avionics testbeds, flatsats, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) and software‑in‑the‑loop (SIL) environments.
• Lead environmental qualification and acceptance testing, including TVAC, vibration, shock, and EMI/EMC.
• Lead avionics readiness for SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and FRR, and support spacecraft integration, launch, and on‑orbit operations.

• Serve as the senior technical authority for avionics across programs and customer engagements.
• Hire, mentor, and grow avionics, electrical, and test engineers, and set design and review standards for the team.
• Work closely with systems, flight software, GNC, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.
• Represent Parallax…