Digital Electronics Engineer

Digital Electronics Engineer

Astroscale

Harwell, United Kingdom

Astroscale is seeking to employ an experienced and motivated Digital Electronics (Command & Data Handling/C&DH) Engineer at our facility based in Harwell, UK.

This is an exciting position, with responsibilities covering the full lifecycle of our spacecraft; from early design of the electronic systems and interfaces to hands-on work through to creating test plans and being part of the AIV activities. As the team is still quite small, if offers the incumbent the potential to be instrumental in the C&DH engineering direction.

This is a unique opportunity to join a dynamic and rapidly growing company seeking to make a positive contribution to the growing problem of orbital debris that endangers mankind’s continued use of space as an asset. The technology of our mission is complex and demanding, with a high amount of data going through the system. As the mission requires our spacecraft to move towards another spacecraft, it has many unique and critical features within the C&DH system.

Responsibilities

Help the development and design activities for the Command & Data Handling Sub-systems on Astroscale spacecraft:

• Review and maintain sub-system requirements;
• Define and develop sub-system tests and verification plans;
• Help define and manage subsystem data and processing budgets;
• Review and design C&DH architectures;
• Test and prove FMECA and FDIR processes;
• Help Coordinate with other teams at sub-system and at system level to define ConOps, ICDs, development and verification plans;
• Plan, prepare and conduct electrical sub-systems and system level verification tests, including writing of test scripts and support to environmental testing;
• Work with the UK-based Ground segment and operations teams in support of our mission operations globally;
• Interact and support team with partners and suppliers for the provision of C&DH equipment. Support procurement engineers with specification, trade-off, and selection of C&DH equipment. Participate in the review of the deliverables in support of the project milestones.

Essential Skills

• Diploma; bachelor or master’s degree in electrical engineering or relevant engineering/science discipline;
• 2+ years of commercial experience in electronic and/or system design of Command & Data Handling Systems for satellites;
• Demonstrable experience on working with or designing systems that use industry de-facto standards such as CCSDS, I2C, RS422, Spacewire, CAN, etc.;
• Experience of how C&DH systems operate on spacecraft missions and their various electrical interfaces;
• Experience in developing and conducting test plans for spacecraft avionics;
• Good understanding of system engineering & managing requirements through the full project lifecycle.

Desired Skills

• Experience in FPGA (field-programmable gate array) design using Verilog/VHDL;
• Experience in Python for test scripts;
• Experience in physically testing hardware and handling flight equipment in a clean room environment;
• Experience in GNSS and time synchronisation on satellites;
• Experience of analysis radiation tolerances and knowledge of radiation hardness assurance for Low Earth Orbit applications;
• A basic knowledge in the following areas: debris removal, end-of-life, in-orbit servicing;
• Whilst the working language across all Astroscale divisions is English, proficiency in spoken and/or written Japanese would be considered an asset.

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