Senior Avionics Engineer, Lunar

Vast is looking for a Senior Avionics Engineer to support our Lunar Program, reporting to the Senior Vice President, Lunar Programs. As the first dedicated avionics engineer on the program, you will serve as a Responsible Engineer for flight avionics hardware, owning design, development, qualification, and integration from early architecture through flight. You will help define how the Lunar program builds avionics: setting the architecture, design standards, and verification practices that the team will inherit as the program scales.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Responsibilities: 

• Serve as Responsible Engineer for avionics subsystems and components, owning requirements, design, analysis, build, test, and flight readiness
• Define and develop avionics architecture for lunar vehicles and systems, including flight computers, power distribution, data handling, communications, sensors, and harnessing
• Design and develop flight electronics, including schematic capture, PCB layout oversight, component selection, and box-level design, with attention to radiation, thermal, and environmental constraints beyond LEO
• Write and manage avionics requirements and interface control documents, and work closely with GNC, flight software, propulsion, power, thermal, and structures teams to close interfaces
• Lead design reviews (CoDR, PDR, CDR) and present technical trades, analyses, and risks to program and engineering leadership
• Plan and execute development, qualification, and acceptance test campaigns for avionics hardware, including functional, EMI/EMC, random vibration, shock, thermal cycling, and TVAC testing
• Build and maintain avionics test benches, hardware-in-the-loop setups, and ground support equipment for checkout and integration
• Support integration of avionics into vehicle-level systems, and troubleshoot hardware, firmware, and interface issues through integrated testing
• Partner with suppliers on procurement, design reviews, and acceptance of avionics components and assemblies
• Drive reliability, parts selection, derating, and failure analysis practices, and own corrective actions on non-conformances
• Help scope and grow the Lunar avionics team, mentoring engineers and technicians as new hires join

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline
• 6+ years of experience designing, developing, and testing avionics or electrical hardware for aerospace, defense, or similarly demanding applications
• Demonstrated ownership of hardware from design through test and integration

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Experience serving as Responsible Engineer for spaceflight avionics through qualification and flight
• Experience with embedded systems, flight computers, power electronics, and data bus architectures (e.g., RS-422, CAN, SpaceWire, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553)
• Experience designing for radiation environments, including part selection, single-event effects mitigation, and total ionizing dose considerations for beyond-LEO or lunar missions
• Proficiency with schematic capture and PCB design tools (e.g., Altium) and the ability to read and interpret schematics, harness drawings, and interface documentation
• Experience with environmental and EMI/EMC testing for spaceflight hardware
• Experience with coding languages (Python, C/C++, MATLAB) for test automation, firmware support, and data analysis
• Experience standing up new hardware capability, labs, or teams in a fast-paced, resource-constrained environment
• Demonstrated experience mentoring or leading engineers and technicians, formally or informally
• Ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams and operate independently with limited direction, thriving in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment

Additional Requirements:

• Willingness to travel to test sites, including Mojave and supplier or outside test facilities, as required
• Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones