Satellite Electrical Power Systems Engineer (NewSpace)
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Employment Type: Full-Time | On-Site
Package: Competitive Salary + Equity + Benefits + Flexible PTO
Are you an Electrical Power Systems specialist passionate about defining power architectures for next-generation satellite platforms operating at the edge of what’s possible?
On offer is the opportunity to join a high-growth space company pushing the limits of ultra-low Earth orbit spacecraft design. You’ll take ownership of the Electrical Power Subsystem, leading everything from generation and storage to conditioning and distribution, ensuring reliable, efficient operation across demanding mission profiles.
Join a team building fast-moving spacecraft programs where mass, volume, and schedule constraints are real, and performance margins matter. You’ll work across avionics, systems, thermal, propulsion, and integration teams to deliver a robust, flight-ready EPS that survives harsh orbital environments and supports mission-critical payload capability.
This position would suit a deeply technical EPS engineer who thrives on architecture ownership, rigorous worst-case analysis, hardware verification, and bridging the gap between analytical models and validated flight hardware.
Key Responsibilities
- Own EPS requirements, architecture definition, and interface control documents (ICDs) across the spacecraft.
- Design and analyse solar array, battery, and power regulation/distribution systems to meet mission demands.
- Build and maintain detailed power budgets for all mission phases, including contingency and degraded scenarios.
- Perform modelling, simulation, and worst-case analysis (WCA) to verify subsystem robustness and margin.
- Drive component selection and qualification for ultra-low orbit environments, factoring radiation tolerance, atomic oxygen exposure, and thermal constraints.
- Support manufacturing, assembly, integration, and test (AIT) of the power subsystem in cleanroom environments.
- Develop and execute subsystem and system-level verification plans (functional, TVAC, vibration).
- Lead EPS-focused reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR) and support system-level readiness reviews.
- Partner with spacecraft subsystem leads to run trade studies and influence system-level decisions.
- Support launch and early orbit ops, including on-orbit power monitoring, performance trending, and anomaly resolution.
Essential Skills and Experience
- 3+ years’ experience in spacecraft electrical power engineering, with at least one smallsat-class mission delivered to orbit.
- Strong understanding of EPS fundamentals: solar arrays, batteries, PCDU, regulation, switching, protections, grounding, and fault management.
- Proven experience producing power budgets, performing sizing exercises, and executing worst-case scenarios across mission phases.
- Experience with modelling/simulation tools and supporting test campaigns to validate designs.
- Familiarity with space-qualified parts and design constraints driven by radiation, thermal, and orbital environment effects.
- Hands-on experience supporting integration and test activities in cleanroom settings.
- Strong problem-solving mindset, able to operate in agile, cross-disciplinary engineering teams.
- Clear, confident communication style when working across subsystem teams, suppliers, and mission stakeholders.
If you’re ready to take full ownership of spacecraft EPS design and deliver flight-ready power systems for high-performance missions, apply now or send your CV to jake.payne@newspacetechnical.com
