Avionics Systems Engineer – Avionics

Are you ready to take your career to new heights At D-Orbit were pioneering the future of space logistics and transportation. Established in 2011 our company has been at the forefront of helping businesses unlock the full potential of the final frontierprofitably and sustainably.

As a member of our team youll have the opportunity to work alongside a diverse group of highly skilled individuals all driven by a shared passion for innovation and excellence. So if you are passionate about space and ready to take your ambition to new heights join us in our global mission to push the boundaries of whats possible!

Operating in the Technology Unit and reporting to the Head of Systems Engineering Group (with project-level reporting to the Avionics Project Lead Engineers) the Avionics Systems Engineer will be responsible for systems engineering activities supporting the development integration verification and lifecycle evolution of D-Orbits avionics suites for New Space missions.

In particular you will work on D-Orbits Avionics platformsmodular product-oriented avionics building blocks engineered to ensure repeatability and scalability. This platform approach enables reuse across multiple missions and satellite configurations supporting D-Orbits New Space satellite platforms with consistent performance quality and manufacturability.

This role requires a balance of structured execution (processes traceability toolchain) and fast-paced creative problem solving to achieve project and company goals.

Key Responsibilities

System Definition Requirements & Architecture

• Capture stakeholder needs and translate them into system/subsystem requirements including derived requirements and clear acceptance criteria.
• Define and maintain the avionics platform architecture (functional logical physical) including HW/SW/FW partitioning and resource budgets (power data timing memory CPU/FPGA utilization).
• Drive architectural choices that maximize platform repeatability and scalability (e.g. modularity interface standardization product configurations/variants reuse patterns).
• Manage requirements allocation consistency and end-to-end traceability from needs requirements design verification evidence.

Interfaces ICDs & Integration

• Define document and control interfaces across the avionics platform and with satellite subsystems (e.g. power OBDH AOCS communications payloads GSE/EGSE).
• Produce and maintain Interface Control Documents (ICDs) to support scalable integration across multiple satellite platforms and mission variants.
• Support integration planning and execution ensuring coherent behavior across electronics HW embedded SW and FPGA firmware.

Analyses Trade-offs Robustness & Risk

• Execute and document trade studies (performance reliability complexity cost/schedule manufacturability testability) explicitly considering platform reuse and scalability constraints.
• Support system robustness activities such as FMEA/FMECA hazard/fault analysis and FDIR concept definition.
• Contribute to reliability thinking (derating approach fault containment safe modes redundancy where applicable) and support EMC/EMI considerations at system level.
• Maintain radiation-awareness at system level (mission-dependent): TID/SEE mitigation concepts watchdogs EDAC scrubbing (as applicable).
• Identify assess and manage technical risks; propose mitigation plans and drive closure.

Verification Validation & Test (IVVQ)

• Define the verification strategy and maintain the verification matrix (inspection analysis test demonstration).
• Contribute to authoring test plans procedures and test reports; support execution at unit/subsystem/system level.
• Promote verification approaches that enable repeatable test campaigns and scalable production/AIT flows (e.g. reusable test assets test automation standardized acceptance criteria).
• Support lab and AIV/AIT activities: test readiness anomaly triage root-cause analysis and corrective/preventive actions.

Process Toolchain & Continuous Improvement

• Operate within established engineering and systems engineering processes to ensure quality and repeatability while contributing to continuous improvement of methods templates and workflows.
• Help evolve the platform development approach to better support reuse configuration management and scalability across multiple satellite platforms.
• Collaborate effectively in a multidisciplinary environment balancing structured execution with rapid iteration.

Required Skills & Knowledge

• Education: MSc (or equivalent) in Aerospace Engineering Electrical/Electronic Engineering Computer Engineering or related STEM discipline.
• Professional experience: Minimum 35 years in systems engineering for avionics systems (Old Space and/or New Space) OR complex electronic systems in other industries operating in safety-critical and/or harsh environments.
• Proven ability to work across HW/SW/FPGA FW boundaries understanding constraints such as timing throughput determinism resource budgets and verification implications.
• Familiarity with typical avionics interfaces/protocols (as applicable): CAN/CAN-FD UART SPI I²C Ethernet; space-oriented protocols such as SpaceWire and MIL-STD-1553 are a plus.
• Working knowledge of structured engineering standards/processes: ECSS engineering and product assurance principles (preferred) and/or transferable safety-critical frameworks such as DO-178C / DO-254 / ARP4754A IEC 61508 ISO 26262.
• Strong technical documentation skills (requirements architectures ICDs verification artifacts).
• Languages: Fluent English (written and spoken) is mandatory; Italian is a plus.

Systems Engineering Tools & Processes (Examples)

• Requirements & Traceability: IBM DOORS/DOORS Next Polarion Jama (or similar).
• MBSE / Architecture & Modeling: SysML/UML tools such as Cameo Systems Modeler (MagicDraw) Capella Enterprise Architect; modeling/simulation with MATLAB/Simulink (or equivalent).
• Configuration Change & Collaboration: Git-based workflows; issue/change tracking with Jira or Azure DevOps; documentation collaboration with Confluence/SharePoint (or similar).
• Test & Integration: Python for test automation/scripting; lab debug tooling (oscilloscopes logic analyzers bus analyzers) and protocol analysis tools such as Wireshark.

Preferred Experience

• Hands-on experience with space avionics building blocks (e.g. OBC/OBDH PCDU/PDU data handling IO modules timing/synchronization distribution).
• Participation in environmental test campaigns (e.g. thermal-vac vibration/shock EMC) qualification/acceptance planning and related documentation.
• Experience supporting system integration campaigns and failure investigations (lab/production) including structured anomaly management.
• Experience contributing to platform/product-line development (reuse strategies configuration variants scalable verification/acceptance).

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical thinking systems mindset and structured problem solving.
• Ability to thrive in a structured but fast-paced environmentcomfortable following established processes/toolchain for quality and repeatability while staying flexible and creative to achieve ambitious goals.
• Clear communicator able to align multidisciplinary teams and drive decisions with evidence.
• Ownership mindset strong prioritization and ability to manage multiple parallel activities.

Hiring Process:

Heres how our hiring process workssimple and straightforward:

• Application review: We go through all applications but well only reach out to candidates who closely match what were looking for.
  If you dont hear from us it means were not moving forward with your application at this time but we may consider you profile for more aligned opening in the future!
• First chat: Selected candidates will have an initial meeting with the people team so we can get to know each other and talk through mutual expectations motivation for change and goals.
• Technical interviews: Next youll have one or two technical interviews focused on your skills and how you approach challenges relevant to the role.
• Offer: If all goes well well send you an offer! Sometimes this stage can take a bit of time as we like to carefully consider each candidate and make sure the fit with the team is just right.

We do our best to get back to everyone we interview but sometimes things take longer than wed like and updates might be a bit slow. If youve got any questions just reach out to us!

Were excited to get to know you and see if you might be the next person to help us...