Senior Harness Design Engineer

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.

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.

Senior Harness Design Engineer

As a Senior Harness Design Engineer at Astranis, you will own the design of the wire harnesses that keep our spacecraft alive on orbit, translating electrical architecture into manufacturable, flight-reliable harness designs built to survive launch and the full mission life in geostationary orbit. You will take harnesses from schematic capture through production release, working across low-voltage, high-voltage, and RF interconnects.

This is a multidisciplinary role built on electrical design depth. You'll bring strong command of harness and electrical design, literacy in the mechanical side of routing and packaging, and the technical range to partner across nearly every part of the vehicle, from avionics and power to propulsion, payload, production, and test. It's a senior seat for someone who owns problems end to end, drives reliability through root-cause analysis, and raises the bar on how flight harnesses get designed and built.

What You'll Do

Own harness architecture and design from concept and schematic capture through drawing packages and production release

Perform the core electrical analysis behind reliable harnesses: wire sizing, voltage-drop budgets, protection and fuse coordination, derating, and connector/component selection

Develop and maintain schematics, harness drawings, wire lists, splice diagrams, and connector face views using the Zuken E3 suite

Drive design-to-manufacturing through Zuken E3.HarnessBuilder, using automation to move cleanly from design intent to manufacturing outputs

Define and dimension controlled harness lengths, branch and breakout tolerances, and service-loop allowances on 2D drawings

Define routing intent, grounding and bonding strategy, and shielding architecture across LV, HV, and RF interconnects within tightly constrained spacecraft volumes

Audit wire diagrams and harness topologies for accuracy against interface control documents (ICDs)

Specify physical protection and support for harnesses, including lacing, tying, convolute, and thermal/abrasion protection appropriate to the space environment.

Build, modify, and validate prototype and test harnesses

Support pre-launch integration and test operations on the ground, including on-vehicle harness routing, installation, and connection

Partner across subsystems (avionics, power, propulsion, payload) and functions (production, environmental test, and vehicle test), since the harness interfaces with nearly every part of the spacecraft

Lead root-cause analysis and implement design improvements that enhance reliability, manufacturability, and serviceability

Collaborate with manufacturing and harness suppliers on DFM/DFI feedback, assembly documentation, and process validation

What you'll Need (Requirements)

We think about this role as one discipline of depth and one of literacy: electrical design is the proficiency, mechanical is the literacy. The required qualifications reflect the electrical depth we can't teach on the job. The mechanical and space-physics skills are where we expect strong collaboration and room to grow.

Degree in electrical, mechatronics, or a related engineering field, or equivalent hands-on harness design experience

7+ years of harness design experience, including 2 to 3 years at the system level, owning harness architecture across a vehicle rather than designing to someone else's spec

Zuken E3 proficiency, with strong hands-on command of E3.cable, E3.smallcable, and E3.HarnessBuilder for schematic capture and harness engineering

Strong electrical fundamentals, including wire and cable selection (ampacity, voltage drop, insulation ratings, shielding, bundling), protection coordination, derating, and connector and terminal selection

Standards fluency in IPC/WHMA-A-620 (Class 3) workmanship, plus NASA harness workmanship and connector selection and qualification practices

Documentation depth, able to generate complete harness packages (schematics, wire lists, connector face views, splice diagrams) and to dimension controlled lengths, branches, and service loops

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