Hardware Design Associate, Software Defined Radio Team (Fall 2026)
Astranis
<div class="content-intro"><p>Astranis builds advanced satellites for high orbits, expanding humanity’s reach into the solar system. Today, Astranis satellites provide dedicated, secure networks to highly-sophisticated customers across the globe— large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the US military. With five satellites on orbit and many more set to launch soon, the company is servicing a backlog of more than $1 billion of commercial contracts.<br><br>Astranis is the preferred satellite communications partner for buyers with stringent requirements for uptime, data security, network visibility, and customization. Astranis has raised over $750 million from some of the world’s best investors, from Andreessen Horowitz to Blackrock and Fidelity, and employs a team of 450 engineers and entrepreneurs. Astranis designs, builds, and operates its satellites out of its 153,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Northern California, USA.</p></div><div class="section page-centered"> <p><strong>Hardware Design Associate, Software Defined Radio Team (Fall 2026)</strong></p> <p>Associate Engineer positions typically last for twelve weeks, and are salaried roles designed for students who have already received a bachelor's degree (or who will have done so before working at Astranis).&nbsp;</p> <p>As an Associate Engineer, you will have an amazing opportunity to work on hard problems — we pride ourselves on giving everyone at Astranis a chance to do meaningful work on challenging projects, and our Associate Engineers work on projects that are of equal importance and difficulty to the projects we give our full-time employees. Many past Associate Engineers have designed and tested hardware/software that is heading to space on our first satellite, and many now work at Astranis full-time.&nbsp;</p> <p>If you are still a college student, please apply to join us as an Intern.&nbsp;</p> <h4><strong>Role</strong></h4> <ul> <li>Design, simulate, implement, and test our internally developed software defined radio hardware</li> <li>Bringup and debug hardware in the lab with top of the line instruments and equipment</li> <li>Write code to help evaluate performance and automate testing of satellite hardware</li> <li>Integrate these systems into the spacecraft by working closely with the rest of the team</li> </ul> <h4><strong>Requirements</strong></h4> <ul> <li>A passion for hardware development, including working in a fast-paced environment and hands-on design and development</li> <li>Hold a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent</li> <li>Demonstrated ability to personally design, build, and test PCBA hardware from scratch (student design team projects, design competitions, personal projects)</li> <li>Solid EE foundation in one or more of the following areas:</li> <ul> <li>analog design (op amps, transistors, RLC filters)</li> <li>digital design (FPGAs, SOCs, SERDES, DDR, LVDS)</li> <li>mixed signal design (ADCs, DACs, power integrity)</li> <li>RF design (Lineups, s-parameters, impedance matching)</li> </ul> </ul> <p><strong>Bonus</strong></p> <ul> <li>Experience building or using software defined radios</li> <li>Experience with Altium Designer (or other PCB design software)</li> <li>Experience with analysis software (ADS, ANSYS, Matlab)</li> <li>Experience with Python or similar programming languages</li> <li>Experience with soldering and rework</li> <li>Experience with EE lab bench equipment (power supply, oscilloscope, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, network analyzers, etc)<