Senior Electrical Engineer

Job description

Role: Sr. Electrical Engineer Employment Type: Full Time About the Role: Lead the architecture, design, and development of electronic systems for spacecraft and payload applications. Design and realise board-level hardware combining analog, digital, and power electronics for mission-critical space systems. Own the complete hardware lifecycle including requirements capture, trade studies, schematic design, component selection, PCB implementation, bring-up, validation, and release. Design flight PCBs for subsystems including electrical power systems, digital avionics, sensor and interface electronics, and payload support electronics. Key Responsibilities Power, Analog and Digital Engineering - Design and analyse power electronic circuits including DC-DC converters, power distribution, protection, load switching, battery-related circuits, and power conditioning stages. - Develop analog circuits such as signal conditioning, sensing, measurement, monitoring, filtering, reference generation, and control loops. - Design and validate digital electronics involving processors, FPGAs, memory, level translation, clocks, reset architecture, housekeeping, and interface circuitry. - Perform engineering analysis for power integrity, signal integrity, timing, grounding, noise coupling, thermal performance, and EMI/EMC behavior. - Work with interfaces and protocols such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, RS422/RS485, LVDS, SpaceWire, Ethernet, and other subsystem communication links. Component Engineering and Reliability - Perform component selection, derating analysis, worst-case analysis, tolerance analysis, and FMECA/FMEA for flight electronics. - Drive design decisions with consideration for high reliability, fault tolerance, fail-safe operation, manufacturability, testability, and environmental robustness. - Support part evaluation and trade studies for space-grade, rad-tolerant, and COTS components depending on mission needs. - Review and define requirements for ESD protection, latch-up resilience, grounding strategy, isolation, and EMI/EMC performance. PCB Realization and Hardware Bring-Up - Work closely with PCB layout engineers to ensure robust implementation of mixed-signal layout practices, including partitioning, return current control, noise isolation, grounding, placement, and routing strategy. - Review PCB layouts for power stages, sensitive analog circuits, high-speed digital interfaces, and flight-critical nets. - Lead board bring-up, debugging, root-cause analysis, and design iteration using lab instrumentation such as oscilloscopes, power supplies, electronic loads, current probes, logic analyzers, multimeters, and thermal tools. - Debug issues related to startup behavior, instability, interface errors, noise coupling, margins, and intermittent failures. Testing, Integration and Documentation - Develop test plans, test procedures, validation matrices, and operating procedures for board-level, subsystem-level, and integrated spacecraft electronics. - Support hardware integration and verification across all program phases including development, cleanroom integration, qualification, launch preparation, and post-launch operational support. - Generate and maintain documentation including requirements, interface control documents, design descriptions, analysis reports, test documentation, and manufacturing support packages. - Work with software and systems teams to define hardware-software interfaces and support system-level validation. Technical Leadership Provide technical guidance during design reviews, failure analysis, and subsystem trade studies. - Mentor junior engineers in good design practices for mixed-signal, power, and high-reliability electronics. - Help strengthen internal standards, design methodologies, review checklists, and hardware development practices within the team. **Preferred Skills** - Strong fundamentals in analog electronics, digital electronics, and power electronics. - Strong understanding of signal integrity, timing, grounding, EMI/EMC, power integrity, and thermal design. - Familiarity with communication and interface standards such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, RS422/RS485, LVDS, SpaceWire, or Ethernet. - Experience with battery electronics, solar power interfaces, converter design, telemetry/housekeeping electronics, or payload support hardware. - Familiarity with FPGAs, RTL concepts, clock/reset design, and digital system integration is a plus. - Experience with high-reliability, aerospace, automotive, defense, or industrial electronics is preferred. - Knowledge of ESD control and board-level protection design. - Strong documentation, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration skills. **Benefits** - Health insurance coverage - Unlimited leaves & flexible working hours - Role-based remote work and work-from-home benefit - Relocation assistance - Professional Mental Wellness Services - Creche facility for primary caregivers (limited to India) - Employee Stock Options for all hires **About Pixxel** Pixxel is a space data company and spacecraft manufacturer redefining Earth observation with hyperspectral imaging. The company’s first three commercial hyperspectral satellites—Fireflies—deliver imagery at 5-meter resolution and 135+ spectral bands, providing 50x richer detail than traditional Earth observation systems and unlocking insights across agriculture, climate, energy, environment, and more. Once fully deployed, Pixxel’s constellation of 18-24 satellites will capture imagery across up to 250 bands in VNIR and SWIR ranges, with a 40 km swath and daily global revisit capability. Pixxel’s most unique strength is its full-stack approach, integrating every layer of the value chain from satellite hardware and manufacturing to AI-powered analytics. Pixxel’s satellite constellation is complemented by Aurora, its in-house Earth Observation Studio that simplifies satellite imagery analysis and de