Jobs › Companies › Xona Space Systems › Electrical Engineer

About this Electrical Engineer role at Xona Space Systems

Xona Space Systems · Onsite · Burlingame, California

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.

Ready to apply to Xona Space Systems?
Apply to Xona Space Systems

How this Electrical Engineer salary compares

This role pays $162,500/yr — below the typical range for Electrical Engineer roles.

$159,500 median $185,000 $190,000

Typical range $163,750–$187,500/yr, from 7 comparable Electrical Engineer listings on JobsRadar (pay annualized to USD). See Electrical Engineer salary insights →

Similar jobs

Peak Energy
Electrical Engineer
Peak Energy
⚡ Apply early Burlingame, California Onsite $160,000–$220,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2w ago
NM
Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer
Neptune Medical
⚡ Apply early Burlingame, California, United... Onsite $160,000–$220,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2mos ago
Xona Space Systems
RF Electrical Engineer
Xona Space Systems
⚡ Apply early Burlingame, California Onsite $130,000–$180,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2mos ago
Xona Space Systems
Electrical Engineer - Payload Systems
Xona Space Systems
⚡ Apply early Burlingame, California Onsite $150,000–$180,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2mos ago
Xona Space Systems
Sr. Electrical Engineer
Xona Space Systems
⚡ Apply early Burlingame, California Onsite $170,000–$200,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2mos ago
Fluidstack
Electrical Engineer, Modular R&D
Fluidstack
⚡ Apply early Austin, TX Onsite $164,000–$206,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2h ago
Fluidstack
Resident Electrical Engineer (PHX)
Fluidstack
⚡ Apply early Phoenix, AZ Onsite $208,000–$263,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2h ago
Fluidstack
Supplier Quality Engineer, Electrical
Fluidstack
⚡ Apply early Austin, TX Onsite $155,000–$262,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2h ago
RR
Senior Engineer - Electrical - Verification & Validation Delivery
Rolls-Royce SMR
⚡ Apply early Derby, UK Hybrid £50,600–£66,465
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 2h ago

Sign up for suggestions tailored to the jobs you open and the searches you save.

More jobs at Xona Space Systems

See all jobs at Xona Space Systems →

Apply now
🤖

Whoa — hold up

JobsRadar was built for real people having a rough time in their job search — not for automated requests. You're clicking way too fast and you're now temporarily blocked.

Come back later. If you're genuinely job hunting, we've got your back — just act like a human.

Catch your next role the second it’s posted.

Create a free account and we’ll watch the boards for you — the instant a job matches your search, it lands in your inbox or Telegram. No digging, no refreshing.

Create free account

Free forever · takes 30 seconds · already have one?

Get an edge on your job hunt.

Join our Telegram channel for the stuff that helps you land the role — salary benchmarks, the weekly market pulse, and new-feature drops. No spam, just signal.

Join the channel — it's free