Senior Harness Design Engineer

San Francisco

Astranis builds advanced satellites for high orbits, expanding humanity’s reach into the solar system. Today, Astranis satellites provide dedicated, secure networks to highly-sophisticated customers across the globe— large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the US military. With five satellites on orbit and many more set to launch soon, the company is servicing a backlog of more than $1 billion of commercial contracts.

Astranis is the preferred satellite communications partner for buyers with stringent requirements for uptime, data security, network visibility, and customization. Astranis has raised over $750 million from some of the world’s best investors, from Andreessen Horowitz to Blackrock and Fidelity, and employs a team of 450 engineers and entrepreneurs. Astranis designs, builds, and operates its satellites out of its 153,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Northern California, USA.

Senior Harness Design Engineer

As a Senior Harness Design Engineer at Astranis, you will own the design of the wire harnesses that keep our spacecraft alive on orbit, translating electrical architecture into manufacturable, flight-reliable harness designs built to survive launch and the full mission life in geostationary orbit. You will take harnesses from schematic capture through production release, working across low-voltage, high-voltage, and RF interconnects.

This is a multidisciplinary role built on electrical design depth. You'll bring strong command of harness and electrical design, literacy in the mechanical side of routing and packaging, and the technical range to partner across nearly every part of the vehicle, from avionics and power to propulsion, payload, production, and test. It's a senior seat for someone who owns problems end to end, drives reliability through root-cause analysis, and raises the bar on how flight harnesses get designed and built.

What You'll Do

  • Own harness architecture and design from concept and schematic capture through drawing packages and production release
  • Perform the core electrical analysis behind reliable harnesses: wire sizing, voltage-drop budgets, protection and fuse coordination, derating, and connector/component selection
  • Develop and maintain schematics, harness drawings, wire lists, splice diagrams, and connector face views using the Zuken E3 suite
  • Drive design-to-manufacturing through Zuken E3.HarnessBuilder, using automation to move cleanly from design intent to manufacturing outputs
  • Define and dimension controlled harness lengths, branch and breakout tolerances, and service-loop allowances on 2D drawings
  • Define routing intent, grounding and bonding strategy, and shielding architecture across LV, HV, and RF interconnects within tightly constrained spacecraft volumes
  • Audit wire diagrams and harness topologies for accuracy against interface control documents (ICDs)
  • Specify physical protection and support for harnesses, including lacing, tying, convolute, and thermal/abrasion protection appropriate to the space environment.
  • Build, modify, and validate prototype and test harnesses
  • Support pre-launch integration and test operations on the ground, including on-vehicle harness routing, installation, and connection
  • Partner across subsystems (avionics, power, propulsion, payload) and functions (production, environmental test, and vehicle test), since the harness interfaces with nearly every part of the spacecraft
  • Lead root-cause analysis and implement design improvements that enhance reliability, manufacturability, and serviceability
  • Collaborate with manufacturing and harness suppliers on DFM/DFI feedback, assembly documentation, and process validation

What you'll Need (Requirements)

We think about this role as one discipline of depth and one of literacy: electrical design is the proficiency, mechanical is the literacy. The required qualifications reflect the electrical depth we can't teach on the job. The mechanical and space-physics skills are where we expect strong collaboration and room to grow.

  • Degree in electrical, mechatronics, or a related engineering field, or equivalent hands-on harness design experience
  • 7+ years of harness design experience, including 2 to 3 years at the system level, owning harness architecture across a vehicle rather than designing to someone else's spec
  • Zuken E3 proficiency, with strong hands-on command of E3.cable, E3.smallcable, and E3.HarnessBuilder for schematic capture and harness engineering
  • Strong electrical fundamentals, including wire and cable selection (ampacity, voltage drop, insulation ratings, shielding, bundling), protection coordination, derating, and connector and terminal selection
  • Standards fluency in IPC/WHMA-A-620 (Class 3) workmanship, plus NASA harness workmanship and connector selection and qualification practices
  • Documentation depth, able to generate complete harness packages (schematics, wire lists, connector face views, splice diagrams) and to dimension controlled lengths, branches, and service loops
  • Hands-on electrical test equipment experience, including harness and continuity testers (e.g., Cirris), digital multimeters, and oscilloscopes
  • Space-environment awareness, with a working understanding of how vacuum, thermal cycling, radiation, and launch vibration and shock drive harness and insulator design decisions
  • Mechanical literacy, comfortable working alongside mechanical and packaging teams on 3D routing feasibility, clamp and datum definition, and harness path

Nice to Have (Preferred)

  • Zuken E3.database librarian experience, having previously owned harness library and component-data governance (this is a role you can grow into)
  • Spacecraft charging expertise, familiar with surface charging, internal and deep-dielectric charging (dielectric penetration), and their effects on wire insulation, connector dielectrics, and shielding, per references such as NASA-HDBK-4002 and ECSS-E-ST-20-06
  • HV design for the space environment, including corona and Paschen-law behavior from ascent to vacuum, and E-field analysis for partial discharge in HV connector qualification and selection
  • RF literacy, comfortable with shielded and coax interconnects, impedance control, and shielding effectiveness sufficient to design and route RF harnesses alongside RF engineers. Familiarity with space coax and connector specifications (e.g., NASA SSQ 21653, MIL-PRF-39012, GSFC S-311-P-718) is a plus
  • Test and verification, including continuity, insulation resistance, dielectric withstanding voltage, bonding resistance, and TDR
  • 3D CAD proficiency in CATIA Electrical, SolidWorks, or 3DEXPERIENCE for harness routing and formboard work
What we offer: 
 
All our positions offer a compensation package that includes equity and robust benefits.
 

Base pay is just one component of Astranis’s total rewards package. Your compensation also includes a significant equity package via incentive stock options, high-quality company-subsidized healthcare, disability and life insurance, 401(k) retirement planning, flexible PTO, and free on-site catered meals.

Astranis pay ranges are informed and defined through professional-grade salary surveys and compensation data sources. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience, credentials & certifications, educational attainment, skill level requirements, and the level and scope of the position.

Base Salary

$135,000 - $235,000 USD

U.S. Citizenship, Lawful Permanent Residency, or Refugee/Asylee Status Required
(To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States, or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3))
 
Our mission and our products are meant to connect the world and everyone in it, regardless of gender, race, creed, or any other distinction. We believe in a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we encourage all people to join our team and bring their unique perspective to help make us stronger.

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