Position Title: Lead Power Systems Engineer
Requisition ID: 1803
Position Location: Sterling, VA
Position Reports To: Director, Electrical Engineering
Supervises Others: No
Position SummaryThe Lead Power Systems Engineer will be the technical leader and decision-maker for a multidisciplinary team of electrical, power, and hardware engineers that design and produce high-performance power systems for satellites. This role requires an experienced spacecraft development engineer who can guide architecture, communicate with customers, and manage top-level requirements and verification. The Lead Power Systems Engineer should have proven skills in designing, debugging, and optimizing DC-DC converters, and should have practical experience with GaN technologies and radiation effects on electronics.
Duties and Responsibilities- Serve as technical lead and primary decision-maker for power systems design across government, civil, and commercial space programs.
- Define and own power system architectures from concept through CDR, including bus regulation, power distribution, battery charging, and protection topologies.
- Lead a team of electrical and power hardware engineers through all phases of the development lifecycle - requirements capture, design, analysis, fabrication, integration, and test.
- Establish and maintain top-level electrical requirements and drive verification and validation activities including qualification and acceptance testing.
- Serve as primary technical interface to customers, program managers, and external stakeholders; present design status, trade studies, and technical risks at formal reviews.
- Guide circuit design and layout reviews for high-reliability and GaN-based DC-DC converters, EMI filters, power distribution networks, solar array interfaces, and battery management systems.
- Apply radiation hardness assurance (RHA) disciplines including part derating, total ionizing dose (TID) analysis, single event effects (SEE) screening, and lot testing coordination.
- Identify and resolve technical risk early through analysis, simulation (SPICE/LTSpice), worst-case analysis (WCA), and hardware bring-up.
- Mentor junior and mid-level engineers; define best practices and contribute to internal technical standards and IP development.
- Support proposal efforts including technical volume authorship, BOE development, and design-to-cost trades.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications- B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering or a closely related field.
- 9+ years of experience in power electronics design, with at least 3 years in a technical lead or principal engineer role.
- Demonstrated expertise in DC-DC converter design across common topologies (buck, boost, flyback, forward, full-bridge) for spaceflight or other high-reliability applications.
- Hands-on experience with GaN FET characterization, gate driver design, and transition to flight application.
- Working knowledge of radiation effects in electronics and RHA methodologies applicable to LEO, MEO, GEO, or deep space environments.
- Experience owning requirements and verification artifacts in a formal systems engineering process (ICD, ICDs, V&V matrices, SRS).
- Proficiency with circuit simulation tools (LTSpice, SIMPLIS, or equivalent).
- Experience with formal design reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR) and direct customer interaction.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience with MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-1553, ECSS, or NASA GEVS standards
- Familiarity with space-qualified magnetic component design (custom inductors and transformers)
- Experience with battery management and charge control for Li-ion cells in space applications
- Cadence or Altium PCB design review experience
- Familiarity with EEE-INST-002 or equivalent part screening and derating standards
- Prior work on programs with formal flight heritage
Benefits Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits including but not limited to:
- Health benefits
- Medical
- Dental
- Vision
- Basic life with AD&D
- Short term disability
- Long term disability
- Ancillary (Voluntary life with AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital, and pet)
- Spending accounts (HSA, FSA, and DCFSA)
- Paid time off
- Holidays
- 401(k) (including company match)
- Tuition reimbursement
- Leaves (Parental, maternity, and military)
- Annual discretionary bonus (for eligible roles)
Trident Systems reserves the right to change or assign other duties to this position.
