What are the responsibilities and job description for the Manager, Avionics Electrical Engineering position at Vast?
At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world's first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in May 2026. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.
Vast is looking for a Manager, Avionics Electrical Engineering, reporting to the Director of Avionics Engineering, to support the development of avionics systems required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Lead team to design, develop, and deploy state-of-the-art avionics tailored for extreme performance and reliability in demanding environments.
- Recruit and empower a diverse team of engineers to develop on-vehicle components from initial requirements to vehicle installation.
- This role is both managerial and technical, and you will have significant input, guidance, review, and oversight on your team's work.
- Exemplify a culture of excellence, extreme ownership, and safety. Enable engineers to take responsibility for the system level impact of their work.
- Communicate with various Vast internal stakeholders to capture project design criteria from the technical system owners and translate them into verifiable avionics design requirements for your team to implement.
- Identify project level verification milestones in the form of analyses, demonstrations, and tests to ensure program success.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering or other comparable engineering discipline
- 5 years of experience in electrical circuit design, analysis and testing
- 2 years of experience in an engineering leadership role
- Experience with avionics test equipment such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, current probes
- Experience with analog, digital, or mixed signal multi-layer PCB design
- Experience with PCBA design and Altium or similar software
- Experience managing the design of technical projects
- Experience with circuit simulation software such as LTSpice or SIMPLIS
- Deep understanding of electrical design and electronics manufacturing to analyze and improve test coverage
- Hands-on experience with sizing, installing and troubleshooting various electronic components
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering or related engineering discipline
- Track record of deploying products with successful space flight heritage
- Familiarity with spacecraft avionics systems and knowledge of space environment effects
- Experience in space mission operations for manned space flight programs
- Comfortable communicating technical topics to a variety of audiences
- Ability to creatively solve problems and weigh against multi-disciplinary requirements together while assessing risk and making design and development decisions
- Competence with electrical test equipment (multimeters, oscilloscopes, network analyzers, power supplies, etc.)
- Creative problem solver that can bring multiple disciplines together with the ability to assess risk and make design and development decisions without all available data
- Self-motivated with strong learning, multi-tasking, organizational, communication and documentation skills
- Strong sense of accountability and integrity with excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere
- Familiarity with NASA standards such as EEE-INST-002
- Develop and implement engineering standards, protocols, and quality assurance processes to optimize system performance and safety
- Conduct technical feasibility studies, simulations, and performance analyses to support project development
Pay Range:
- Manager, Avionics Electrical Engineering: $150,000-$170,000
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 10 days of vacation for non-exempt staff, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, One Medical membership, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks.We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast's ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees.
U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS
The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a "U.S. person" as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast 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.
Salary : $150,000 - $170,000
