Engineering Manager, Avionics

Muon seeks an Engineering Manager to lead the team that designs the core avionics at the heart of every Muon spacecraft—flight computers, power systems and batteries, ADCS controller, and related electronics. This team is design-focused: architecting, designing, qualifying, and evolving the avionics products reused across satellite platforms and missions. This hybrid role requires working on-site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.

About the Role

This is a hands-on management role for a leader with an extensive electrical design background. You’ll manage and grow the team while staying deeply engaged technically—driving architecture, reviewing schematics and layouts, and setting the design quality bar.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow the avionics design team; plan resourcing across concurrent development efforts and hire as the team scales
• Own delivery of Muon’s core avionics—flight computers, power systems and batteries, ADCS controllers, and related electronics—from architecture through design, qualification, and production support
• Drive the avionics roadmap: improve performance, reliability, cost, and manufacturability, and maximize standardization and reuse across satellite platforms
• Stay hands-on: contribute to architecture definition, review schematics and layouts, and support bring-up and debug alongside the team
• Set and uphold electrical design standards—design reviews, derating and worst-case analysis, documentation, and ECO/DCO discipline
• Own avionics qualification and test strategies, partnering with Hardware Reliability & Test to ensure consistent qualification across products
• Partner with embedded software, mechanical, thermal, systems, and production teams to ensure successful hardware/software integration and manufacturability
• Invest in developing engineers through coaching, design feedback, and growth planning

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience designing complex, high-reliability electronics that operate in harsh environments (spacecraft, aviation, automotive, robotics, or similar)
• 2+ years managing or technically leading engineering teams
• Extensive hands-on electrical design experience: architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout, and board bring-up for complex mixed-signal systems
• Deep understanding across avionics domains: embedded processing, power conversion and distribution, battery systems, and control electronics
• Experience taking boards from concept through qualification and production
• Strong grasp of hardware/software integration: microcontrollers and common interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet)
• Excellent leadership, communication, and presentation skills; ability to move fluidly between team leadership and hands-on engineering
• B.S. or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Skills

• Flight heritage—avionics you designed that has successfully operated in space
• Experience designing radiation-tolerant electronics using COTS components
• Experience with power electronics for space applications (batteries, switching converters, load switches)
• Experience with FPGAs, SoCs, or embedded Linux platforms
• EMI/EMC design and test experience
• Test automation and data analysis using Python or similar

Pay

The salary range for this role is $186,000 - $202,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401k retirement plan
• Short & long term disability and life insurance
• Three weeks paid vacation for new employees
• 12 paid holidays
• Unlimited sick time
• Paid parental leave

This position requires access to export-controlled information and is limited to U.S. persons as defined by U.S. export regulations.