Sr. Avionics Engineer

You’ll join Fortastra’s Engineering Division, responsible for the design, development, and test of flight systems across our autonomous spacecraft portfolio. The avionics function owns the electrical and computing backbone of the vehicle - flight computers, sensor interfaces, power distribution, and communications that enable autonomous operations in complex orbital environments.

The Role

Fortastra is seeking a Sr. Avionics Engineer to design and deliver spacecraft avionics hardware and embedded systems through the full product lifecycle from concept and architecture, through PCB design and bring-up, to integration on flight hardware. This is a hands‑on design engineering role for an Electrical Engineer who enjoys owning boards and systems end‑to‑end rather than specializing narrowly in analysis or test.

You will architect avionics subsystems, design PCBs, select components, and bring up hardware in the lab. While spacecraft experience is ideal, we are also open to candidates from automotive EVs, robotics, and defense who have strong EE design backgrounds and have shipped mission‑critical hardware.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the full lifecycle of avionics hardware: concept, architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout review, bring‑up, integration, and support to flight.
• Design flight computers and support boards, including processor, memory, power management, sensor/actuator interfaces, and communications interfaces.
• Select and integrate electrical components (MCUs/SoCs, FPGAs, memories, sensors, transceivers, power devices) appropriate for reliable operation in demanding environments.
• Define and implement board‑level interfaces and data buses (e.g., CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, Space Wire) across the spacecraft avionics network.
• Develop and maintain Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for avionics connections to GNC, power, propulsion, and payload subsystems.
• Bring up new boards in the lab: write simple test firmware, debug hardware issues, and validate functionality using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and other instrumentation.
• Collaborate with embedded software and flight software engineers to integrate low‑level drivers, bootloaders, and health monitoring with the hardware you design.
• Contribute to power architecture and distribution within avionics assemblies, including protections, filtering, and load management.
• Apply design‑for‑test and design‑for‑reliability principles so boards can be efficiently validated, qualified, and flown.

Qualifications and Skills

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience as a design engineer owning electrical/avionics hardware through its full lifecycle (spacecraft, automotive EVs, robotics, defense, or similar domains).
• Strong EE design experience, including schematic capture and PCB design/review for complex digital and mixed‑signal boards.
• Hands‑on experience bringing up boards: flashing firmware, exercising interfaces, and debugging hardware at the bench.
• Proficiency with embedded systems and common serial buses (e.g., CAN, SPI, I2C, UART), and familiarity with data acquisition or telemetry systems.
• Experience with C/C++ and Python in Linux‑based environments for hardware bring‑up, test automation, or tooling.
• Familiarity with FPGA‑based designs is a plus (RTL design, integration, or constraints), but not required.
• Experience in at least one mission‑critical domain (spacecraft, launch vehicles, automotive EVs, robotics, defense, or industrial control).
• Comfort working across disciplines and collaborating closely with software, mechanical, and systems engineers.

Requirements

• 5 days on‑site in Torrance, CA

Why Fortastra

We are a small, high‑impact team building the next generation of autonomous…