below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays less than
68%
of similar roles. Most pay
$147,200–$217,500
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$162k
versus about
$182k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About SpaceX
SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft with the mission of enabling humans to become a multi-planetary species. It operates the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, as well as the Starlink satellite internet constellation.
SpaceX currently has
851 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$130,000–$165,000
across 590 roles with salary data.
The Sr. Design Criteria Engineer (Starshield) joins the Starshield Design Criteria Engineering team to ensure satellite mission success and high reliability for government use, specifically focusing on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads. This role involves developing design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new satellite systems while managing design maturation, validation, and safe launch. Responsibilities include performing critical peer reviews of hardware designs, providing input on electrical, structural, and radio frequency systems, and owning configuration management for satellite variants. Candidates must possess technical fundamentals in engineering, with preferred experience in aircraft, launch vehicles, or spacecraft systems. Required skills include scripting and data analysis using Visual Basic, SQL, Matlab, Python, or Excel, alongside experience with enterprise resource planning systems and safety-critical manufacturing applications.
Develop and own design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches for new satellite systems.
Perform critical peer reviews of hardware designs and qualification test campaigns to approve launch readiness.
Guide engineers through the SpaceX design process to ensure compliance with requirements during manufacturing and testing.
Provide technical analysis and test recommendations for electrical, structural, and radio frequency systems.
Proactively identify development risks and implement and track formal mitigation plans.
Own configuration management to ensure bill of materials accuracy for as-designed and as-built configurations.
Develop specialized tools to enable design, analysis, and milestone tracking.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline.
5+ years of experience in an engineering role.
Advanced degree in an engineering discipline (preferred).
5+ years professional experience in an engineering role (design, analysis, test, or manufacturing) (preferred).
Experience with aircraft, launch vehicles, spacecraft, or other aerospace systems (preferred).
Experience with electrical or mechanical system design, analysis, testing, and fabrication for safety-critical or high-manufacturing-rate applications (preferred).
Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or eligible for Department of State authorization.
Optics
Photonics
Laser Communication Systems
Zemax
Python
C++
MATLAB
Linux
FPGAs
Mixed-Signal Circuits
Ethernet
SERDES
DDR4
I2C
SPI
Fiber Optics
Signal Integrity
Precision Metrology
Optical Test Equipment
Satellite Command and Control
Ground Segment Architecture
Network Architecture
IP Networking
Switching
Routing
Machine Learning
Large Language Models
Data Processing
Compute Infrastructure
Interface Control Documentation
Electrical Engineering
Spacecraft Mission Design