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Sr. Electrical Design Engineer (Starshield)

Join SpaceX as a Sr. Electrical Design Engineer to design and develop reliable electronics for national security efforts.

Location
Hawthorne, CA, United States
Compensation
$140k–$230k/yr
Level
senior
Type
full time

Posted by employer 1 day ago

First seen on Joblaze 36 minutes ago

Last verified on the company career page 36 minutes ago

What you'll build

  • Design and develop electronics for satellites
  • Drive electrical architecture and component selection
  • Partner with cross-disciplinary teams

Must have

  • Bachelor's degree in electrical or computer engineering
  • 5+ years of professional experience designing electronics products

Nice to have

  • Master’s degree in electrical engineering or similar
  • 3+ years of experience rapidly designing products
  • 2+ years of experience with mixed-signal circuit boards

Practical constraints

  • Active TS/SCI clearance or ability to obtain one
  • Willingness to work extended hours and weekends

Requirements

Experience
5+ years
Education
Bachelor's degree

Not disclosed in this posting: work arrangement, visa sponsorship.

Benefits

401k Match Paid Vacation Equity/Stock Options Paid Holidays Health Insurance Parental Leave

Joblaze summary

In the role of Sr. Electrical Design Engineer for the Starshield program at SpaceX, the engineer will focus on the design, development, and testing of reliable electronics for satellite communication. Key skills include expertise in mixed-signal circuit board design and a strong grasp of programming languages like Python and C/C++. This position is suited for experienced professionals with a background in full life cycle hardware development, particularly those who thrive in fast-paced, cross-functional environments. The Starshield team is rapidly evolving, emphasizing innovation and collaboration to meet national security needs.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed today — first seen on Joblaze November 14, 2026. Last confirmed on SpaceX's careers page November 14, 2026.
  • This exact title is also open at 1 other location at SpaceX: Hawthorne, CA.
  • Salary band is in line with the typical range for comparable tech roles (median ~$130,000).
  • Starts above 29% of 299 comparable senior other roles in United States that list Python we track (median $150,000 across 61 companies). See Python salary trends
  • Python appears in 16.3% of 2718 comparable senior other roles in United States; Computer Engineering appears in 0.5% of 2718 comparable senior other roles in United States.

Quick facts

What's the salary range?
SpaceX lists $140,000–$230,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Sr. Electrical Design Engineer (Starshield) role.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: C/C++, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Python.
What seniority level is this role?
SpaceX targets senior candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Sr. Electrical Design Engineer (Starshield) role at SpaceX.

From the original posting

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:
Level 3: $140,000.00 - $230,000.00

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.

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.

Those with an active clearance will receive a 10% differential, up to an additional $20,000 annually, once officially briefed into a classified program.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

Standard company text repeated across SpaceX's postings is omitted here.

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