Satellite Electrical Manufacturing Engineer

About Astro Digital

Astro Digital designs, builds, and operates a diverse range of small satellite systems supporting space-based turnkey missions for several business applications, including earth observation, communications, in-orbit demonstrations, risk reduction, science, and exploration. Astro Digital is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado with roughly 110 employees and infrastructure around the globe.

Position Summary

The Satellite Electrical Manufacturing Engineer will support the development, integration, and production of spacecraft hardware, with a primary focus on electrical manufacturing and integration. This role will have broad involvement across manufacturing engineering and will work closely with technicians, mechanical and electrical engineers, test, quality, and program teams to develop and continuously improve spacecraft production processes. While the primary area of responsibility will be electrical manufacturing, this position will have exposure and responsibility across all levels of the spacecraft build, including mechanical assembly, harness installation and integration, subsystem integration, environmental testing, final integration, and other spacecraft manufacturing activities. The successful candidate should be comfortable working across disciplinary boundaries, troubleshooting manufacturing issues at the system level, and spending significant time on the production floor working directly with technicians and flight hardware.

The ideal candidate has strong hands-on experience supporting high-reliability spaceflight electrical manufacturing, harness fabrication, and PCB assembly in a cleanroom environment.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Generate and maintain detailed manufacturing work instructions, wiring assembly procedures, and electrical rework dispositions based on electrical schematics, ICDs, harness drawings, and PCB layouts.
• Develop, release, and maintain Manufacturing Orders (MOs), routings, travelers, and bill of materials (BOMs) for harness assemblies and electronic subassemblies within the ERP/MES system (e.g., Odoo).
• Provide hands-on technical support to production technicians during wire harness fabrication, connector pinout/termination, PCB subassembly integration, and solar cell array laydown.
• Author step-by-step engineering rework instructions and disposition non-conformances (NCRs) for delicate surface-mount/through-hole PCB modifications, wire repairs, and trace fixes.
• Develop, optimize, and standardize processes for complex harness routing, solar cell laydown, potting, encapsulation, and precision conductive adhesive dispensing.
• Collaborate with Electrical, Test, and Systems Engineering teams to drive Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Design for Testability (DFT) for spacecraft electronics.
• Define and maintain electrical test procedures, harness continuity checks, and in-process voltage/glow screening protocols.
• Ensure all electrical manufacturing activities strictly comply with quality standards, IPC standards, ESD protection, FOD prevention, and cleanroom protocols.
• Support non-conformance investigations, root cause analysis (RCA), and continuous improvement efforts to enhance yield, repeatability, and throughput.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 3–8 years of experience supporting electrical manufacturing, harness fabrication, or electronics assembly in aerospace, defense, or high-reliability environments.
• Deep expertise in harness manufacturing, connector terminations, crimping, wire routing, and electrical schematic interpretation.
• Hands-on experience creating detailed manufacturing work instructions, electrical rework procedures, and production travelers from engineering drawings and schematics.
• Strong working knowledge of PCB subassembly manufacturing, surface-mount technology (SMT), fine-pitch hand soldering, and microelectronics rework.
• Practical understanding of electrical testing techniques, digital multimeters, power supplies, breakout boxes, and harness continuity test equipment.
• Demonstrated experience working within cleanroom, ESD-controlled, and FOD-controlled manufacturing environments.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills to bridge engineering design teams and floor production technicians..

Preferred Qualifications

• Active or previous IPC certifications (IPC J-STD-001 with Space Addendum, IPC/WHMA-A-620, or IPC-A-610).
• Broad experience supporting full satellite electrical integration, avionics box builds, bus power distribution, and payload wiring.
• Direct experience supporting spacecraft integration and environmental testing campaigns (TVAC, Vibration, Thermal Cycling).
• Hands-on experience using ERP/MES platforms like Odoo, SAP, or VECAMS.
• Experience developing custom electrical test fixtures, harness break-out boxes, or specialized manufacturing tooling.
• Familiarity with NASA, ESA, or military manufacturing standards for spaceflight hardware.
• Exposure to specialized subassembly manufacturing processes, such as solar array laydown, conductive epoxies, or sensor integration.

Pay Transparency

Astro Digital employees are provided with a comprehensive benefits package that includes company stock options, healthcare, 401k retirement plan, and PTO. The range of possible compensation for this role is $110k-150k annually, depending on candidate experience and alignment.

Physical Demands

This position requires the ability to lift and move objects weighing up to 50 Lbs. Frequent standing, walking, bending, and reaching may be required.

Export Statement

This position requires access to export-controlled commodities, technical data, technology, software, and services. U.S. citizenship, U.S. legal permanent resident status, or protected person status under 22 CFR §120.15 and 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3) is required.