--- title: 'Avionics Engineer (Power Electronics) at Starpath Robotics' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-engineer-power-electronics-starpath-robotics-carson-xqkj5wk157fe' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-13' --- # Avionics Engineer (Power Electronics) at Starpath Robotics - **Company:** Starpath Robotics - **Location:** Carson, CA - **Compensation:** $135k–$165k - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2026-09-29 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-13 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/starpath.space/8317fb6b-5399-4c35-89c8-21584def544f ## Job description Position Details - Location: Carson, CA - Employment Type: Full-time - Department: Starlight - Travel: Occasional The Mission Starpath is building the technology to enable human expansion into the Solar System. We are developing systems that will produce the water, power, and oxygen needed for humans to live and work on the Moon and Mars. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars. Starlight is our space solar product. Our goal is to build the lowest-cost, highest-performance space solar power system—one capable of powering most new satellites around Earth and all Starpath equipment on the Moon and Mars. Power Electronics Avionics Engineer We are looking for a Power Electronics Avionics Engineer to own the design of Starlight’s power electronics. Your immediate responsibility will be to develop a power converter from system architecture through qualification and production. You will own the converter’s topology, component selection, magnetics, control loops, sensing, protection circuitry, PCB design, thermal performance, and electrical interfaces. This is a hands-on role that includes circuit design, simulation, hardware bring-up, testing, and failure investigation in close collaboration with systems, mechanical, manufacturing, and test engineers. Responsibilities: - Own the design of a power converter for the Starlight solar array product from requirements through flight readiness - Translate system-level requirements into converter architecture and detailed electrical requirements - Select converter topologies and components based on efficiency, power density, reliability, mass, cost, and manufacturability - Design switching power stages, gate-drive circuits, magnetics, control loops, sensing, filtering, and protection circuitry - Perform circuit modeling, simulation, stability analysis, component derating, and worst-case analysis - Own schematic capture and power-electronics PCB layout, including high-current paths, switching nodes, grounding, isolation, thermal management, and EMI control - Build, bring up, characterize, and debug converter prototypes - Develop and execute tests for efficiency, regulation, transient response, stability, thermal performance, emissions, and fault behavior - Design for launch and space environments, including vibration, thermal vacuum, radiation, and electromagnetic compatibility - Define electrical interfaces between the solar array, converter, spacecraft power system, and avionics - Investigate failures, determine root causes, and implement design improvements - Partner with manufacturing and supply-chain teams to transition the design into reliable production - Maintain schematics, bills of materials, analyses, interface documentation, and test and qualification records Required Qualifications: - 3+ years of professional experience designing power electronics or power-conversion hardware - Experience taking a power converter from architecture through prototype, bring-up, and testing - Strong understanding of switch-mode power-converter topologies, control-loop design, magnetics, power semiconductors, and gate-drive design - Experience with current and voltage sensing, feedback networks, filtering, isolation, and hardware protection circuits - Strong understanding of grounding, parasitics, switching behavior, power integrity, and EMI/EMC fundamentals - Experience designing or directing the layout of multilayer power-electronics PCBs - Hands-on experience using oscilloscopes, electronic loads, power supplies, network analyzers, current probes, and differential probes - Experience with circuit simulation, tolerance analysis, hardware bring-up, and root-cause investigation - Degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional experience - A desire to make humans a multi-planet species Preferred Qualifications: - Experience designing power electronics for spacecraft, satellites, launch vehicles, aircraft, or other high-reliability systems - Experience with solar-array power electronics, maximum power point tracking, battery charging, or spacecraft electrical power systems - Experience designing high-efficiency, high-power-density DC-DC converters and custom magnetics - Experience with digital power control, embedded control firmware, or FPGA-based control - Knowledge of radiation effects, electrical component derating, and worst-case circuit analysis for space hardware - Experience designing for thermal vacuum, vibration, shock, and spaceflight EMC environments - Proficiency with Altium Designer, Cadence, LTspice, PSpice, PLECS, or similar tools - Experience supporting design-for-manufacturing, production testing, supplier qualification, or failure analysis EAR Requirements: - To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, you must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Equal Opportunity: - Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Benefits: At Starpath Robotics, base pay is just one part of your total rewards package. We also offer: - Generous benefits including health, dental, vision, and retirement plans. - Paid time off, holidays, and flexible policies to support balance. - Professional growth opportunities through training and development. - The chance to own high-impact work that directly shapes the future of robotics & space! - A collaborative, mission-driven culture where craftsmanship and innovation are celebrated. ## About Starpath Robotics ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Starpath Robotics designs and manufactures robotic propellant production factories for the Moon and Mars, aiming to reduce the cost of deep-space transport and enable a self-sustaining human city on Mars. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage) - **Headquarters**: Hawthorne, California, United States - **Founded**: 2022 - **Founders**: Saurav Shroff (CEO & Co-Founder), Mihir Gondhalekar (Co-Founder) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Space Research and Technology, Air Transportation, Space Travel, Robotics - **Target customers**: B2B – space agencies (NASA), commercial space companies (e.g., Starship operators), satellite operators, and future Mars/Moon infrastructure developers. - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Building a self-sustaining city on Mars” by producing propellant and infrastructure in space. ## Products & Services - **Rover (R10)**: Autonomous lunar ice prospecting rover that excavates and delivers hundreds of kilograms of icy regolith. Built for NASA testing and future lunar operations. - **Refinery System**: Full-stack hardware system for producing and distributing propellant (oxygen, hydrogen, methane) from water ice on the Moon and Mars. - **Starlight Solar**: Space-rated solar panels that are 90% cheaper than traditional alternatives, with lead times of weeks instead of months. Available for purchase now. - **Starlight Air**: The world’s lightest space solar panel (announced March 2026). Engineered for high-efficiency power generation. - **Shadow Voyager**: Exploration vehicle designed for permanently shadowed regions at the Lunar South Pole. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $12.0M (Seed round closed August 20, 2024) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: - Fusion Fund (lead investor in Seed round per LinkedIn) - 8VC and 10 other investors (per Crunchbase) - Contrary, Valhalla Ventures - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (testing partnership) - Atomic-6 (development contract for deployable lunar boom) - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew 73.7% year-over-year to 28 employees (LinkedIn, 2026) - Successful thermal vacuum chamber testing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (2025) - Launch of Starlight Air solar panels (2026) - Active hiring for technical roles including first Technical Recruiter ## Competitive Advantages - **Ex-SpaceX founding team**: Deep expertise in space hardware and propulsion. - **Full-stack approach**: Covers rover mining, propellant refinery, and solar power – a vertically integrated solution for in-situ resource utilization. - **NASA collaboration**: Early access to NASA’s test facilities (e.g., 20-ft thermal vacuum chamber) and credibility. - **Cost disruption**: Starlight solar panels claim 90% cost reduction vs. traditional space solar. - **First-mover on lunar ice**: Autonomous rover designed to establish the first American claim to lunar ice resources. ## Strategic Focus - **Lunar testbed**: Use the Moon as a proving ground for Mars propellant production technology, leveraging lunar water ice. - **City-scale infrastructure**: Scale from propellant production to energy grids, mining capacity, and life support for a self-sustaining Mars city. - **Revenue diversification**: Selling Starlight solar panels and rover services to generate near-term revenue while pursuing long-term Mars goals. - **Talent scaling**: Aggressively hiring to grow the engineering team (technical roles are 48% of workforce). ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Startup environment with a bold mission (“build a city on Mars”). High ownership and fast iteration – interns are expected to do “whatever needs doing.” - **Growth**: Company growing rapidly (+73.7% YoY headcount); opportunities for early employees to take on significant responsibility. - **Technical depth**: Team includes alumni from SpaceX, Boston Dynamics, Anduril, Astrobotic – strong engineering culture. - **Work location**: Hawthorne, CA (HQ) with additional office in Burlingame, CA. Onsite presence expected (manufacturing and testing require hands-on work). - **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but startup equity and the chance to work on hardware that goes to the Moon and Mars. - **Recent hiring signals**: Actively recruiting Technical Recruiter, software engineers, and rover engineers – indicating scaling phase. ## Sources 1. [starpath.space](https://www.starpath.space/) 2. [starpath.space/about](https://starpath.space/about/) 3. [crunchbase.com](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/starpath-robotics) 4. 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