About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, Engineering.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

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About the Role

Confidential Client is developing an autonomous sensing and effector payload for space applications. This early-career Payload Engineer I role is hands-on: you will help design, build, integrate, and test a flight-representative engineering model across optics, mechanical, avionics and software domains. You’ll work directly with senior systems, GNC, electronics and optics engineers, supporting milestones and design reviews with government stakeholders. The role emphasizes ownership, rapid learning, and practical lab-to-test experience.

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What You’ll Do

• Own the payload engineering model day-to-day: requirements, design, build, integration, test and documentation
• Develop payload, autonomy, effector, power, thermal and pointing requirements and interface control documents (ICDs) between payload, avionics and spacecraft bus
• Prepare SRR, PDR and CDR packages; maintain the verification matrix and risk register between gates
• Integrate effector subsystems, edge-compute avionics, and a multimodal sensor suite (optical, LiDAR, radar)
• Perform optical alignment and performance verification; iterate design corrections into the build
• Run hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, closing the loop from perception to pointing against simulated orbital targets
• Support environmental qualification (TVAC, launch vibration, EMC/EMI) including pre/post functional tests and anomaly resolution
• Deliver an end-to-end ground demonstration on a payload-in-the-loop testbed
• Produce customer-facing documentation: test reports, qualification dossier, and final performance assessment against KPPs

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Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Physics, Optics/Photonics, Robotics, Computer Science, or equivalent demonstrated knowledge
• 0–2 years professional experience — early-career candidates and recent graduates encouraged to apply
• Hands-on evidence of building hardware or integrated systems (e.g., university cubesat or rocketry team, Formula Student, research lab, internship, or independent project)
• Working proficiency in Python

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Preferred Skills & Experience

• Any space-related exposure (cubesat programs, hosted payloads, space/defense internships, space-focused graduate work)
• Optics and photonics bench work (laser safety experience, e.g., ANSI Z136, is a plus)
• Computer vision experience
• Closed-loop pointing and control systems
• Environmental test and integration experience
• Systems engineering practice and working with SRR/PDR/CDR artifacts
• Embedded or real-time software experience

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ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

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Compensation & Benefits

• Pay range (P1) Entry: $99,000 - $133,000 / year
• Meaningful equity incentives (employee option pool)
• Flexible PTO; paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
• 401(k) with company match
• Location: Los Angeles, CA

Pay bands are determined by role, level, location, and market data. Individual base pay may vary based on skills, education, experience, and internal equity. Full-time hires may also be eligible for long-term incentives (stock options) and standard benefits.

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Additional Information

This position emphasizes practical, hands-on engineering and rapid learning. If you have strong lab or field experience building and testing hardware systems and are excited by a high-ownership environment in the space domain, we encourage you to apply.

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Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind. To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.