Senior Quality Engineer (Avionics)

Department: Manufacturing

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Redondo Beach

Compensation: $140,000 - $160,000 / year

Description

As a Senior Quality Engineer at Impulse you will own the reliability and manufacturability of our spacecraft avionics systems from development through flight. This role sits at the intersection of design engineering, manufacturing, and mission assurance—ensuring that every board, harness, and integrated system meets the highest standards for performance in extreme environments. 

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end quality and reliability for avionics hardware (PCBs, harnessing, boxes, and integrated systems)
• Partner with design engineering to drive DFM/DFA and reliability best practices early in the design phase 
• Develop and implement build quality plans, control plans, and inspection strategies
• Lead root cause and corrective action (RCCA) investigations for failures across development, test, and production 
• Establish and track reliability metrics (yield, defect rates, MTBF, etc.) 
• Drive supplier quality for avionics components and contract manufacturers 
• Define and execute qualification, acceptance, and environmental test plans (vibe, thermal, TVAC, EMI/EMC) 
• Build and maintain traceability systems for flight hardware 
• Partner with manufacturing to improve first-pass yield and throughput
• Identify and mitigate risk in build processes and flight hardware

 Support mission readiness reviews and anomaly resolution

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field 
• 6+ years of experience in quality, reliability, or manufacturing engineering
• Strong experience with avionics hardware (PCBs, electronics assemblies, or embedded systems) 
• Demonstrated experience working in high-reliability environments (space, aerospace, defense, automotive, or similar)
• Ability to operate across design, manufacturing, and test teams

Preferred Skills and Experience

• 5+ years of demonstrated experience implementing quality/build reliability practices with flight hardware or space systems 
• Familiarity with standards like: 
  •  IPC (IPC-A-610, J-STD-001) 
  •  NASA or DoD quality requirements 
• Demonstrated experience with supplier quality management
• Background in NPI (New Product Introduction) and scaling production 
• Knowledge of EMI/EMC testing and mitigation

Additional Information:

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.  

Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.