GS
Founding Avionics Engineer
Accepting applicationsGRU Space (YC W26) · San Francisco, CA
Full-Time Mid_senior ArmC++JTAGaiate
Posted
28 May
Category
Test
Experience
Mid_senior
Country
United States
You will work on a historic lunar payload which will build the foundation of a Moon base, landing on the Moon in 2027.
What you’ll do:
Design the avionics stack: controller boards, power distribution, sensor interfaces and valve actuation electronics.
Write the flight software for payload sequencing, closed-loop process control, and fault management.
Own the electrical interface to the CLPS lander (power, data, commanding, telemetry formatting).
Select and qualify components for the lunar radiation and thermal environment.
Design and build harnessing, including a lunar umbilical cord exposed on the Moon for our deployable payload.
What we’re looking for:
Experience designing mixed-signal PCBs from schematic through layout, fabrication, and bring-up (full-cycle).
RS-485 / serial protocol design: you can write a protocol ICD and define baud rate, framing, CRC, and fault handling from scratch.
Flight software in C/C++ on microcontrollers: state machines, FDIR, watchdog logic, closed-loop control.
Familiarity with spaceflight-adjacent standards for wiring, grounding, and EMI/EMC.
Power electronics: 28 Vdc conditioning, inrush limiting, motor driver integration, and power budget analysis.
Harness design: MIL-STD-38999 connectors, EMI/EMC compliance, thermal-rated wire and insulation (Kapton/PTFE), shielding continuity.
Comfort operating across the hardware/software boundary: you can debug a board with an oscilloscope and a JTAG probe.
You’ve built flight hardware before
Excellent communication skills
Must haves:
Experience architecting an avionics system from scratch that flew into space: you've taken a design from concept to launch and can point to it.
Full-cycle PCB design: schematic through layout, fab, bring-up, and in-system debug.
Nice to haves:
Experience writing ICDs and technical documentation delivered to a vehicle or launch provider.
Familiarity with actuator drive electronics (brushed DC motors, NEA/pyro devices) or compressed-gas systems.
Comfortable interfacing with mechanical design teams.
Onboard data storage design: NAND flash, wear leveling, downlink queue management.
Experience with radiation-tolerant or rad-hard component selection.
You can drink from the fire hose.
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., 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.
About Galactic Resource Utilization Space, Inc. (GRU Space)
GRU builds off-world habitats using in-situ resource utilization technology, turning local material into building material.
We are landing on the Moon in 2027: our first mission will turn lunar regolith into bricks and demonstrate our modular pressurized habitat system. A second mission will begin laying the hotel’s foundation in a lunar cave. A third mission will open the first lunar hotel, targeted 2032.
We don’t stop at Moon hotels. GRU’s long-term plan:
Build the first hotel on the Moon. GRU solves off‑world surface habitation.
Build America’s first Moon base: roads, mass drivers, warehouses, and physical infrastructure.
Repeat on Mars and build the first cities there.
Own property on the Moon and Mars as these economies grow.
Reinvest profits into resource utilization systems on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and beyond—reaching our final form: Galactic Resource Utilization.
GRU Space is backed by investors in SpaceX + Anduril, and is part of Nvidia’s Inception program.
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What you’ll do:
Design the avionics stack: controller boards, power distribution, sensor interfaces and valve actuation electronics.
Write the flight software for payload sequencing, closed-loop process control, and fault management.
Own the electrical interface to the CLPS lander (power, data, commanding, telemetry formatting).
Select and qualify components for the lunar radiation and thermal environment.
Design and build harnessing, including a lunar umbilical cord exposed on the Moon for our deployable payload.
What we’re looking for:
Experience designing mixed-signal PCBs from schematic through layout, fabrication, and bring-up (full-cycle).
RS-485 / serial protocol design: you can write a protocol ICD and define baud rate, framing, CRC, and fault handling from scratch.
Flight software in C/C++ on microcontrollers: state machines, FDIR, watchdog logic, closed-loop control.
Familiarity with spaceflight-adjacent standards for wiring, grounding, and EMI/EMC.
Power electronics: 28 Vdc conditioning, inrush limiting, motor driver integration, and power budget analysis.
Harness design: MIL-STD-38999 connectors, EMI/EMC compliance, thermal-rated wire and insulation (Kapton/PTFE), shielding continuity.
Comfort operating across the hardware/software boundary: you can debug a board with an oscilloscope and a JTAG probe.
You’ve built flight hardware before
Excellent communication skills
Must haves:
Experience architecting an avionics system from scratch that flew into space: you've taken a design from concept to launch and can point to it.
Full-cycle PCB design: schematic through layout, fab, bring-up, and in-system debug.
Nice to haves:
Experience writing ICDs and technical documentation delivered to a vehicle or launch provider.
Familiarity with actuator drive electronics (brushed DC motors, NEA/pyro devices) or compressed-gas systems.
Comfortable interfacing with mechanical design teams.
Onboard data storage design: NAND flash, wear leveling, downlink queue management.
Experience with radiation-tolerant or rad-hard component selection.
You can drink from the fire hose.
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., 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.
About Galactic Resource Utilization Space, Inc. (GRU Space)
GRU builds off-world habitats using in-situ resource utilization technology, turning local material into building material.
We are landing on the Moon in 2027: our first mission will turn lunar regolith into bricks and demonstrate our modular pressurized habitat system. A second mission will begin laying the hotel’s foundation in a lunar cave. A third mission will open the first lunar hotel, targeted 2032.
We don’t stop at Moon hotels. GRU’s long-term plan:
Build the first hotel on the Moon. GRU solves off‑world surface habitation.
Build America’s first Moon base: roads, mass drivers, warehouses, and physical infrastructure.
Repeat on Mars and build the first cities there.
Own property on the Moon and Mars as these economies grow.
Reinvest profits into resource utilization systems on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and beyond—reaching our final form: Galactic Resource Utilization.
GRU Space is backed by investors in SpaceX + Anduril, and is part of Nvidia’s Inception program.
Show more Show less