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.
LEAD HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER (STARLINK)
Starlink believes in providing fast, reliable internet to serve populations with little or no connectivity. We design, build, launch, and operate the world’s largest constellation of satellites, enabling us to operate a global internet network unbounded by traditional ground infrastructure limitations. The root of SpaceX’s success so far lies in our mission to keep all engineering and production in-house, which enables a tight feedback loop, nimble decision-making, and speedy deliverables. With millions of daily users worldwide already online, Starlink is truly a game changer and levels the playing field for those who were previously unconnected.
We are developing cutting-edge, highly reliable, and high-volume electronics for communicating with our constellation of satellites and are looking for outstanding engineers to join our team.
The Starlink Product Development Team is responsible for the development of customer-facing products which are manufactured in the range of many millions per year, including phased array satellite dishes, high speed WiFi routers, and power supplies.
As a Lead Hardware Engineer on the Starlink team, you will lead a team of 3–5 engineers, and own the full ecosystem and roadmap of our consumer electronics from start to finish. You will set the technical direction, grow the engineers on your team into product owners, and work regularly with partner teams across antenna, software, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing, and production test to take this hardware from initial concept through full-scale production.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Lead a team of 3-5 engineers to rapidly design, develop, and test highly reliable electronics for our Gateway systems
- Drive electrical architecture, specification, component selection, circuit board design, implementation, verification, board bring-up, and debugging
- Optimize existing designs to improve reliability and reduce production and field defects
- Implement automated design validation test assets to speed up development cycles
- Hire, coach, and develop direct reports so they can own their products and make decisions without waiting on you
- Develop and train direct reports to enable product ownership and empowered decision making
- Partner with antenna, software, mechanical, networking, thermal, manufacturing and production test teams
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or physics
- 3+ years of professional experience with hardware design/development or electronics test engineering
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
- 6+ years of professional experience rapidly designing and delivering highly-reliable products
- 6+ 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
- 6+ 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
- 6+ years of professional experience testing, troubleshooting, and debugging electronics
- Strong understanding of computer networking and interfaces (10/100/400/800G networking/Tbps switches)
- Strong understanding of optical networking architectures and fundamentals
- Strong understanding of computers and programming languages (Python, C/C++)
- Experience in desktop/server Linux and embedded operating systems
- Demonstrated ability to work in a highly cross-functional role
- Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
- Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission critical deadlines
- Ability to travel to other sites (Hawthorne, CA and Redmond, WA) up to 20%
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 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 [email protected].
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or physics
- 3+ years of professional experience in hardware design/development or electronics test engineering
- 6+ years of professional experience designing and delivering highly reliable products
- 6+ years of electronic product experience designing hardware from concept through production
- 6+ years of experience designing and implementing mixed-signal circuit boards using processors, FPGAs, Ethernet, multi-GHz SerDes, DDR4, I2C, SPI, operational amplifiers, ADCs, DACs, and power supply components
- 6+ years of professional experience testing, troubleshooting, and debugging electronics
- Strong understanding of computer networking and interfaces, including 10/100/400/800G networking and Tbps switches
- Strong understanding of optical networking architectures and fundamentals
- Strong understanding of computers and programming languages, including Python and C/C++
- Experience with desktop/server Linux and embedded operating systems
- Ability to work in a highly cross-functional role
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission-critical deadlines
- Ability to travel to other sites up to 20%
- Must meet ITAR eligibility requirements as a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations
SpaceX Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about SpaceX and has not been reviewed or approved by SpaceX.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity grants are a core part of total compensation, with periodic company-run tender offers that create liquidity before any public listing. These mechanisms can make the equity component feel materially valuable in practice.
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Healthcare Strength — The package includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, with on-site clinics and health resources at major sites. This breadth of coverage is presented as a strong element of the offering.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Major locations feature on-site amenities such as fitness facilities, food/coffee, clinics, and other conveniences. These lifestyle perks enhance day-to-day value alongside cash and equity.
SpaceX Insights
What We Do
SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary. SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company ever to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in December 2010. The company made history again in May 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, exchanged cargo payloads, and returned safely to Earth — a technically challenging feat previously accomplished only by governments. Since then Dragon has delivered cargo to and from the space station multiple times, providing regular cargo resupply missions for NASA.
