Blue Origin

Senior Power Electronics & PCB Design Engineer Lead - TeraWave

Blue Origin$156K — $219K *
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, or a closely related field plus 8+ years of electronics hardware development experience with leadership experience.
  • Proficiency with PCB design tools such as Altium Designer or Cadence Allegro, with hands-on layout experience.
  • Experience in power electronics hardware development, including considerations for high-voltage and thermal management.
  • Hands-on experience in circuit design across analog, digital, or mixed-signal domains, including troubleshooting common components.
  • Knowledge of DFM/DFT principles and IPC standards applied in production electronics.

Responsibilities

  • Lead a team of engineers in the design and optimization of PMAD electronics.
  • Own architectural decisions for power distribution, signal routing, and manufacturability of designs.
  • Drive cost and mass reductions while simplifying designs for economy of scale.
  • Oversee requirements definition, design development, verification, and testing for PMAD.
  • Design multi-layer PCBs for complex systems, focusing on EMC, signal integrity, and thermal management.
  • Conduct power integrity analysis and develop low-noise power distribution networks.
  • Collaborate with mechanical teams to guarantee scalable and manufacturable designs.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life insurance options.
  • Paid parental leave and disability coverage.
  • 401(k) plan with up to 5% company match.
  • Up to four weeks of paid time off and 14 company-paid holidays.
  • Stock options available for regular employees working over 20 hours per week.
Full Job Description
Application close date:
Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

Blue Origin is pioneering the future of space-based communications with TeraWave, a revolutionary satellite communications network designed to deliver symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth. This multi-orbit constellation will consist of optically interconnected satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO), providing enterprise-grade connectivity for critical operations worldwide.

This role sits within the TeraWave Spacecraft Bus Electrical Power Subsystem team. We are seeking a Lead Power Electronics and PCB Design Engineer to lead a team of experienced circuit and PCB design engineers responsible for the Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) electronics. Your team's mandate is clear: optimize the PMAD for cost, mass, and producibility without compromising reliability or performance - and do it at constellation scale.

This is a dual technical leadership and hands-on engineering role. You will set technical direction, manage complex design trades, and guide your team through schematic review, layout, verification, and qualification. You will also roll up your sleeves - owning board architecture decisions, driving DFM/DFT, and working directly with PCB fabricators and contract manufacturers to ensure the design is buildable at rate. TeraWave produces thousands of units, which means every decision you make has a direct multiplying effect on cost, yield, and schedule.

Responsibilities:
  • Lead a team of PCB and circuit design engineers responsible for PMAD electronics design, optimization, and production readiness
  • Own board architecture decisions for the PMAD, including power distribution, connector strategy, signal routing, current path design, protection interfaces, serviceability, and manufacturability
  • Drive cost and mass reduction trades, architecture simplification, modularity, part count reduction, and recurring manufacturing cost improvements
  • Lead electronics requirements definition, architecture trades, detailed design development, design verification, and test across the PMAD
  • Design multi-layer PCBs for complex digital, mixed-signal, and high-voltage/high-power systems, with careful attention to EMC, creepage and clearance, signal integrity, power integrity, and thermal management
  • Conduct power integrity analysis and design power distribution networks (PDN) for low-noise, high-current applications
  • Work closely with mechanical packaging and harness teams to ensure the PMAD design is scalable, integrable, and manufacturable
  • Work with PCB fabricators and contract manufacturers to resolve fabrication and assembly issues and ensure DFM compliance
  • Collaborate with supply chain to ensure component and material availability for production rate
  • Support board bring-up, hardware debugging, and anomaly resolution during development, qualification, and integration
  • Follow designs through formal verification, environmental qualification, and production release; support integration and flight acceptance activities
  • Generate and maintain complete fabrication and assembly documentation including Gerber files, drill files, assembly drawings, and BOMs within the configuration management system


Minimum Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, or Materials Science Engineering, Physics, or a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field, plus 8 or more years of electronics hardware development experience, including demonstrated team leadership experience spanning technical guidance, performance development, and cross-functional coordination
  • Proficiency with PCB design tools - Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, or equivalent - including hands-on layout experience for mixed-signal and high-power designs
  • Demonstrated experience in power electronics hardware development, including high-voltage switching, power regulation, and PCB layout with explicit consideration for creepage, clearance, and thermal management
  • Hands-on circuit design experience across analog, digital, or mixed-signal domains, including analysis, simulation, component selection, and troubleshooting of common parts such as power supplies, ADCs, DACs, op amps, processors, and MOSFETs
  • Working knowledge of DFM, DFT principles, and IPC standards (IPC-2221, IPC-6012, IPC-A-610 or equivalent), with experience applying them in a production electronics context
  • Must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum - required for access to export-controlled technical data


Preferred Qualifications:
  • Experience designing electronics for space or aerospace environments, including vacuum, thermal cycling, radiation tolerance, and vibration
  • Experience with power integrity analysis tools such as HyperLynx, Ansys SIwave, or Cadence Sigrity
  • Experience performing worst-case circuit analysis, FMEA/FMECA, and reliability analysis for high-reliability applications
  • Knowledge of signal integrity, grounding, and EMI/EMC best practices for high-power and mixed-signal PCB designs
  • Knowledge of common communication protocols including RS-422, I2C, SPI, LVDS, Ethernet, or CAN
  • Knowledge of conformal coating, potting, and other space-qualification surface treatment techniques
  • Familiarity with MIL-STD or NASA standards for electronics design and PCB fabrication
  • Background in fault detection, redundancy strategies, and system-level reliability design
  • Experience with Windchill PLM or an equivalent configuration management system
  • Strong written and verbal technical communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to author specifications, analysis reports, and design documentation independently


Base Pay Range for:
WA applicants is $156,802.00 - $219,522.45

Other site ranges may differ

Culture Statement

Don't meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Benefits
  • Benefits include: Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
  • Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
  • Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.
  • Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.


About Blue Origin

Blue Origin is an aerospace company that develops rockets and spacecraft for commercial and government customers. The company's products include the New Shepard suborbital vehicle and the New Glenn orbital rocket. Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos and is headquartered in Kent, Washington.
Learn more about Blue Origin
Size
3,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2000

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