Sr. Electrical Design Engineer (Starshield)
- Salary
- $140,000 - $205,000 per year
- Level
- Senior
Not stated in the posting: work type, visa.
Open. First seen 8 May 2026.
About the role
SpaceX's standard text
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.
SR. ELECTRICAL DESIGN ENGINEER (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. As an electrical development engineer on the Starshield team, you will demonstrate extreme ownership through detailed and thorough design, hardware bring- up/characterization/testing, and requirements generation/verification - ultimately seeing your hardware through all aspects of its life cycle.
Starshield is a quickly growing program with a wide range of engaging opportunities from blank-sheet design to on-orbit troubleshooting. You will work with many cross-disciplinary teams and will need to think at a system level to ensure that your design is viable. Our development timelines are quick and you will need to rigorously explore solutions for previously unsolved or unknown problems. Every day we push the limits of what is possible through innovation, determination, and teamwork to drive the mission to success.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Rapidly design, develop and test highly reliable electronics for communicating with our satellites
- Drive electrical architecture, specification, component selection, circuit board design, implementation, verification, board bring up and debugging
- Partner with software, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing teams and production test teams
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor's degree in electrical or computer engineering
- 5+ years of professional experience designing electronics products
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
- Master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or similar engineering degree
- 3+ years of professional experience rapidly designing and delivering highly reliable products
- 3+ years of electronic product experience designing hardware from concept through production; strong emphasis on full life cycle development of new hardware products and not small incremental updates to legacy hardware
- 2+ years of experience designing and implementing mixed-signal circuit boards from concept through production using processors, FPGAs, Ethernet, multi-GHz SerDes, DRAM interfaces (DDR4), I2C, SPI, operational amplifiers, analog to digital and digital to analog converters, and power supply components
- 2+ years of professional experience testing, troubleshooting and debugging electronics
- 2+ years of professional experience with fast-paced projects
- Strong understanding of computers and programming languages (Python, C/C++)
- Demonstrated ability to work in a highly cross-functional role
- Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding start-up atmosphere
- Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
- Active TS/SCI clearance or the ability to obtain and maintain one
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
- An active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions; if so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol testing
- Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:
Pay range:
Sr. Electrical Design Engineer: $140,000.00 - $205,000.00/per year
Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience. Those with an active clearance will receive a 10% differential, up to an additional $20,000 annually, once officially briefed into a classified program.
Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks.
You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.
ITAR REQUIREMENTS:
- To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
SpaceX's standard text
SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to EEOCompliance@spacex.com.
What this role asks for
Particular to this role
C++ · FPGA
Rare in SpaceX's other 299 open postings.
Standard for software engineering roles
Python
Common in software engineering postings at any company.
84% of this description is written for the role. The rest is SpaceX's standard text, folded away below.
Read against SpaceX's other open postings on this site.
The team: Starshield Satellite Engineering HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 43 open in Starshield Satellite Engineering. 4 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in January: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Python (31 of 43), C++ (23 of 43), FPGA (18 of 43), C (14 of 43), Linux (13 of 43), MATLAB (13 of 43), PCB Design (8 of 43)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Sr. Optical Engineer (Starshield) posted Oct 13
- Embedded Software Engineer, RF Payloads (Starshield) posted Sep 28
- Electric Propulsion Engineer, Avionics (Starshield) posted Sep 23
- Principal RFIC Engineer (Starshield Silicon) posted Sep 22
- New Graduate Engineer, Mechanical Design (Starshield) posted Sep 10
- GNC Engineer, ADCS (Starshield) posted Aug 31
- GNC Engineer, Phased Array Devices (Starshield) posted Aug 31
- Software Engineer, Tracking (Starshield) posted Aug 31
- Principal RFIC Engineer (Starshield Silicon) posted Aug 28
- Optical Engineer (Starshield) posted Aug 17
- Hardware Reliability Engineer, Components (Starshield) posted Aug 17
- PCB Designer (Starshield) posted Aug 10
- Principal RF Software Engineer (Starshield) posted Aug 6
- RF Engineer (Starshield) posted Aug 6
- Electrical Design Engineer (Starshield) posted Aug 6
- Reliability Engineer, Satellite Systems (Starshield) posted Jul 28
- Electric Propulsion Engineer, Mechanical (Starshield) posted Jul 28
- Harness Engineering Specialist (Starshield) posted Jul 16
- Harness Design Engineer (Starshield) posted Jul 15
- Sr. RFIC Layout Designer (Starshield Silicon) posted Jul 14
- RFIC Layout Designer (Starshield Silicon) posted Jul 14
- Sr. Design Criteria Engineer (Starshield) posted Jun 30
- Software Engineer, Vehicle Operations (Starshield) posted Jun 26
- Sr. RF Software Engineer (Starshield) posted Jun 2
- PCB Reliability Engineer (Starshield) posted May 28
- Sr. RFIC Engineer (Starshield) posted May 27
- GNC Engineer, Fleet Management (Starshield) posted May 26
- GNC Engineer, Beam Planning (Starshield) posted May 26
- Principal RF Engineer (Starshield) posted May 20
- Ground Network Specialist (Starshield) posted May 19
- RFIC Engineer (Starshield Silicon) posted May 14
- Manager, ASIC Design Engineering (Starshield Silicon) posted May 1
- Sr. RF Engineer (Starshield) posted Apr 24
- RF Software Engineer (Starshield) posted Apr 22
- Lead PCB Designer (Starshield) posted Apr 22
- Antenna Engineer (Starshield) posted Apr 17
- Principal ASIC Design Engineer (Starshield) posted Apr 3
- Sr. ASIC Design Engineer (Starshield) posted Apr 3
- Design Criteria Engineer (Starshield) posted Apr 3
- New Graduate Engineer, Electrical (Starshield) posted Apr 1
- Sr. PCB Designer posted Mar 6
- GNC Engineer, ADCS (Starshield) posted Jan 31
From the team and dates on SpaceX's own job board.
Other openings for this role
2 postings for this role in Hawthorne, CA since 7 March 2026, 1 still open. None has been taken down and posted again.
- 8 May 2026 – open (this posting)
- 7 March 2026 – closed
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