Engineering Manager, Avionics
About the role
Muon seeks an Engineering Manager to lead the team that designs the core avionics at the heart of every Muon spacecraft - flight computers, power systems and batteries, ADCS controller, and related electronics. Unlike our mission-facing teams, this team is design-focused: architecting, designing, qualifying, and evolving the avionics products that are reused across our satellite platforms and missions.
This is a hands-on management role for a leader with an extensive electrical design background: you'll manage and grow the team while staying deeply engaged technically - driving architecture, reviewing schematics and layouts, and setting the design quality bar.
This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.
Responsibilities
Lead, mentor, and grow the avionics design team along with planning resourcing across concurrent development efforts and hire as the team scales
Own delivery of Muon's core avionics - flight computers, power systems and batteries, ADCS controllers, and related electronics - from architecture through design, qualification, and production support
Drive the avionics roadmap: improve performance, reliability, cost, and manufacturability, and maximize standardization and reuse across satellite platforms
Stay hands-on: contribute to architecture definition, review schematics and layouts, and support bring-up and debug alongside the team
Set and uphold electrical design standards — design reviews, derating and worst-case analysis, documentation, and ECO/DCO discipline
Own avionics qualification and test strategies, partnering with Hardware Reliability & Test to ensure consistent qualification across products
Partner with embedded software, mechanical, thermal, systems, and production teams to ensure successful hardware/software integration and manufacturability
Invest in developing engineers through coaching, design feedback, and growth planning
Required Qualifications
8+ years of experience designing complex, high-reliability electronics that operate in harsh environments (spacecraft, aviation, automotive, robotics, or similar)
2+ years managing or technically leading engineering teams
Extensive hands-on electrical design experience: architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout, and board bring-up for complex mixed-signal systems
Deep understanding across avionics domains: embedded processing, power conversion and distribution, battery systems, and control electronics
Experience taking boards from concept through qualification and production
Strong grasp of hardware/software integration: microcontrollers and common interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet)
Excellent leadership, communication, and presentation skills; ability to move fluidly between team leadership and hands-on engineering
B.S. or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
Nice-to-have Skills
Flight heritage — avionics you designed that has successfully operated in space
Experience designing radiation-tolerant electronics using COTS components
Experience with power electronics for space applications (batteries, switching converters, load switches)
Experience with FPGAs, SoCs, or embedded Linux platforms
EMI/EMC design and test experience
Test automation and data analysis using Python or similar
Salary
The salary range for this role is $186,000 - $202,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.