Senior Motor Control Engineer (Spacecraft)

Location: Hybrid work near Centennial, Colorado, or Long Beach, California; some work must be performed on site. Candidates must be able to maintain or obtain TS//SCI clearance and meet U.S. space technology export requirements.

Base salary: $135,000–$200,000, plus equity and benefits.

Company

Develops autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors for space superiority and threat response.

What you will do

• Own the end-to-end design and development of motor control systems for spacecraft mechanisms, including brushless DC motors, stepper motors, and drive electronics.
• Develop embedded C/C++ firmware for closed-loop servo control, commutation, fault detection, precision pointing, tracking, and positioning.
• Design and prototype motor drive electronics, including gate drivers, power stages, current sensing, and feedback interfaces.
• Define architectures and interface requirements for solar array drive assemblies, deployment mechanisms, and precision gimbals.
• Lead component selection, trade studies, power and thermal analysis, reliability assessments, and testing campaigns.
• Collaborate with mechanisms, avionics, GNC, and test teams while supporting integration, launch, commissioning, and on-orbit troubleshooting.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of professional motor control engineering experience.
• Experience with stepper motor control, microstepping, control theory, PID control, state-space methods, and stability analysis.
• Experience developing embedded motor control firmware in C/C++ and designing motor drive electronics with gate drivers, power stages, and current sensing circuits.
• Proficiency with MATLAB, Simulink, or similar simulation and analysis tools.
• Experience testing motor control systems with oscilloscopes, power analyzers, dynamometers, and torque measurement systems.

Nice to have

• Spacecraft motor control experience involving solar array drive assemblies, reaction wheels, or precision pointing mechanisms.
• Experience with radiation-tolerant, high-reliability, fault-mitigated designs, derating analysis, and thermal management in vacuum environments.
• Knowledge of resolvers, encoders, Hall effect sensors, PCB design with Altium Designer, FPGA-based motor control, MIL-SPEC, and NASA standards.
• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup or similarly dynamic environment.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work environment with required on-site work for some activities.
• Company-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage with HSA/HRA options.
• Flexible Time Off for exempt employees or up to 25 accrued PTO days for non-exempt employees, plus 12 paid holidays.
• Parental leave, sick leave, 401(k), fitness reimbursement, and daily catered lunch for in-office employees.
• Equity participation is included in the total compensation package.