As a member of our fast-paced Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) team, you will be responsible for ensuring avionics hardware performance across our fleet of vehicles through some of the harshest and varied electromagnetic environments imaginable. The E3 team performs exhaustive analysis, design, and test at the board, unit, subsystem, and system levels with extensive opportunity to interact with a vast array of rocket, spacecraft, and ground support equipment hardware and electronics. As one of the few teams required to interface with the design, manufacturing, integration, and mission operations teams, we play a critical role in the development of our systems as we advance our efforts towards broadband satellite internet and safe, reliable, inexpensive, and innovative access to space with the fundamental goal of expanding human space exploration capabilities and establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon and Mars.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Design products to survive electromagnetic environmental effects
- Set requirements based on physics rather than industry standards – a much deeper understanding of electromagnetic environmental effects is critical
- Ensure that designs meet the EMI/EMC requirements that have been set
- Interface with, teach, and set requirements with various design teams all around the company
- Perform and teach electromagnetic compatibility design and analysis
- Perform analysis and design relating to effects of space plasma, lightning, surface/bulk/triboelectric charging, circuit and power system grounding architectures, structural electrical bonding, circuit isolation, transfer impedance, shielding effectiveness, radiated/conducted emissions and susceptibility, near field/far field electrodynamics, shielding effectiveness, welding operations, corona and arc discharge, computational electromagnetics, etc.
- Design and perform tests to validate the analyses and designs from the previous bullet
- Write documents and control plans as needed
- Troubleshoot EMI issues from board to system level
- Operate a variety of EMI, RF, and electronics test equipment
- Independently perform verifications and document results in a clear, precise, and complete manner
- Support engineering effectively and confidently with creative thinking and rigor – question the status quo while adhering to documentation and maintaining prescribed quality standards
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, physics, or other engineering discipline
- 2+ years of professional experience
- Experience programming in Python
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
- 2+ years of E3 work experience, including EMI/EMC requirements, analysis, design, and testing
- Previous work experience with MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-464, NASA-STD-4003 documentation
- Previous experience with IEC-61000/EN-61000/FCC Radio and EMC standards and requirements
- Knowledge of electromagnetic environmental effects on space vehicles and launch vehicles, including, effects of space plasma, on-orbit charging, triboelectric charging, grounding/bonding/shielding, design for low radiated emissions, HIRF, lightning, electromagnetic field coupling, Maxwell's equations, image charge/current, and lumped element modeling
- Knowledge of electrical safety and EMC commercial compliance standards, requirements and test methods for consumer electronics
- Knowledge of materials (including paint, anodize, magnaplate, nickel plate, alodine, surface finish) and their electrical properties (including conductivity, volume resistivity, surface resistance, permeability and permittivity, polarizability, shielding effectiveness, skin depth, etc.)
- Demonstrated experience troubleshooting EMI/EMC events from board to system level
- Demonstrated experience with NASA-HDBK-4001, DO-160, MIL-STD-1541, SSP 30237, SSP 30238, SMC-S-008 documentation
- Previous work experience with reading, interpreting and following: circuit schematics, PCB layouts, engineering drawings, BOMs, cable harnesses, wiring schematics, interface diagrams, layout drawings, mechanical drawings and CAD software
- Knowledge of plasma/space physics, dielectric breakdown, RF principals, RF engineering
- Experience with computational methods using CST, HFSS, EMA3D or other EM solvers
- Experience with electrical circuit analysis using simulation tools such as LTSpice or equivalent
- Experience preferred in fast-paced work environment with production/flight hardware
- Able to adapt to constantly changing work assignments
- Excellent concentration and attention to detail with outstanding work efficiency and accuracy
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
- Ability to work extended hours and weekends as needed
ITAR REQUIREMENTS:
- To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
