Staff Thermal Control Systems Engineer

Department: Software Engineering

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Hawthorne, CA, Hawthorne, California, Remote

What you'll do:

• Work with stakeholders to define thermal control system requirements from vehicle and subsystem level functional and performance requirements 
• Design, develop, tune, verify, and validate vehicle thermal control system performance 
• Build simulation and modeling tools for thermal control system design, analysis and tuning in appropriate tools and mature models as additional test data becomes available
• Design and prototype appropriate controllers that meet the defined requirements using simulations and control system design tools 
• Define sizing and placement of thermal control system components such as RTDs, heaters, radiators, etc. to ensure efficient, effective vehicle thermal control 
• Analyze and tune controller performance, stability, and robustness using the system simulations and TVAC test data 
• Develop control system documentation and work with vehicle software team to convert controller prototypes into flight code, including supporting unit and integrated testing of flight implementations 
• Support calibration of thermal control system sensors and implementation of calibration in flight software 

What you'll bring:

• Bachelor's degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) related field 
• 10+ years of space vehicle thermal control system analysis, design, development, verification, and validation. Relevant space vehicles include space stations, human-rated spacecraft, deep space science missions, extra-terrestrial rovers, or similar 
• Experience building, testing, and validating thermal control systems simulation and analysis tools for space vehicles 

• Experience modeling, analyzing, and tuning performance of thermal control systems to maximize thermal control authority while minimizing power and energy consumption and control system complexity 
• Experience working with limited thermal system observability (e.g. need to limit number of avionics channels, data bandwidth, and harnessing) 
• Experience sizing thermal control systems and ensuring optimal (or close to optimal) placement of thermal control system elements (e.g. sensors, heaters, radiators) 
• Experience working with testbeds for testing control systems on flight-like hardware and devising test plans to ensure proper testing of vehicle thermal control systems in relevant environments 
• Strong proficiency with spacecraft thermal modeling, thermal control system design tools, and control systems analysis (e.g. thermal desktop, Matlab controls system toolbox) 
• Experience designing thermal control for complex, sensitive systems such as robotic arms, optical sensors with limited optimal operational temperature ranges, and similar is desired

Benefits and Perks

• Join a team of best-in-class engineers building the foundation of planetary surface exploration
• Equity ownership in the company
• Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health support
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Flexible PTO and parental leave
• Weekly lunch stipend, plus complimentary snacks and beverages on-site
• Once a month social hour on-site with food and drinks