Lead PCB Designer (Starshield)

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

LEAD PCB DESIGNER (STARSHIELD)

Starshield leverages SpaceX’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 will require close collaboration with electrical and mechanical engineering teams as well as 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 constantly look for opportunities to improve our designs and reduce layout time.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• 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 

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline

• 2+ years of PCB design experience

• 1+ years of experience leading teams and/or projects

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience designing boards for high volume production and executing on tight deadlines

• Deep understanding of DFM/DFA/DFT (design for manufacturing, design for assembly, design for test) rules and PCB fabrication process. Mastery of tools such as Valor Enterprise.

• 2+ years of experience with PCB layout and routing in one or all of the following areas: 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 Alt