Electrical System

Karman+

We are inventors, designers, engineers, scientists, tinkerers, entrepreneurs, adventurers, artists, activists, global citizens, architects, musicians, builders, writers, athletes and space nerds. We partner with the best minds and most experienced teams across industry and academia, bringing together the knowledge, experience, and skills required to navigate our critical path.

Mission
We want to mine space resources from near-Earth asteroids to provide abundant, sustainable energy and resources in space and for Earth.
Vision 

Asteroid mining has lived at the intersection of scientific research and popular culture for decades, with as many academic papers published as there are books, TV shows and movies about it.

Access to resources, with its finite nature and disparate distribution, plays an essential part in the geopolitical web of power and wealth. It has defined economic growth to such an extent that we have been using them as primary demarcation lines and identifiers in our history, from the stone to bronze and iron age to our current silicon age.

But our resources-driven growth faces a massive existential challenge, with climate change, ecosystem degradation and resource depletion demanding a complete reset. Humanity needs to shift global transportation, manufacturing, construction and energy onto a sustainable path.

Expanding beyond the Kármán line is where we believe transformative future growth and innovation will be found. Recent missions by NASA (OSIRIS-REx & DART) and JAXA (Hayabusa2) have firmly pushed the idea of using space resources from academic research into commercial opportunity.

We believe the Regolith Age, powered by abundant space resources, is an inevitability that we can accelerate.

We value these principles:

• Diversity of thought. We believe that different perspectives drive better results. We aim to build diverse teams and a diverse company.
• Ownership, feedback and accountability. Ideas improve through collaboration, discussion and iteration. Decisions don't follow the same pattern and revert to the mean when made in a group. We aim to have clear ownership, accountability for results and autonomy to deliver. 
• No silos. We build cross-functional teams to be able to deliver on our goals. There are no predefined lanes for people to operate in, information is pushed out across all teams to make sure we benefit from cross-pollination.
• High talent bar, no a**holes. We optimize for potential and a growth mindset. We value experience, but only when balanced with self-awareness and first principles thinking.
• Small is beautiful. The best results as well as the best work experience come from a small team of talented people working towards a common goal.

Position Title: Electrical Systems & Harness Design Engineer
Location: Broomfield, CO
Position Type: Full-time

Mission: High Frontier – Tie it all together

At Karman+, we're building spacecraft systems that will take us beyond Earth orbit. For the High Frontier mission, we need an electrical systems and harness design engineer to own electrical architecture and harness design for flight and test systems. This includes helping to establish standard harness design, build, and maintenance standards and best practices. This role requires a deep understanding of vehicle systems design and requires coordination with all subsystem teams. A good candidate will have experience with aerospace industry harnessing standards such as NASA-STD and MSFC-SPEC-494 and will have directly designed flight harnesses for space vehicles. In this role you will be a member of the assembly integration and test team and may be involved in additional electrical test work.

What You'll Do

• Take ownership of the system block diagram, mapping high level electrical connectivity between components
• Take ownership of the system grounding architecture, ensuring proper grounding principles are followed across the vehicle
• Take ownership of flight harness design for the High Frontier space vehicle
  • Coordinate with subsystem teams and component REs to determine how their components will need to interface with harnessing
  • Own the EICD, pin to pin mapping for every harness connection on the vehicle
  • Generate flight quality harness drawings to be manufactured by an in-house harness build team
  • Make design choices related to harness insulation, terminations, shielding/grounding, gauging, twisting, cable ties, etc.
  • Lead the selection and sourcing of flight connectors
  • Help harness manufacturing technicians with harness build, lab setup, and parts stocking
  • Define harness routing and production breaks to ensure ease of assembly and routing through the flight vehicle
  • Use best practices from industry standards such as NASA-STD and MSFC-SPEC-494, make tailored versions to best fit High Frontier's risk posture and schedule
  • Develop and execute harness checkout procedures and maintenance such as ring outs, hi-pot testing, and bake outs
  • Select and procure RF cables for communication systems
  • Ensure all harnessing meets SpaceX rideshare and range safety requirements
• Take ownership of the design of various non-flight harnessing throughout the program
  • Adjust design, materials, processes, and standards to match the level of rigor required for a test harness vs a flight harness
  • Design harnessing for HIL/FlatSat environments, noting deltas from flight harnessing to manage TLYFEs
  • Design and stock BOB cables to be used for general electrical testing
  • Design harnessing for component level bench tests
  • Design harnessing for component level TVAC
  • Design EGSE harnessing for floor operations (connection to ground power/data rack and solar array simulators) and environmental testing (TVAC feedthroughs)
  • Design one-off test harnessing on an as needed basis, working with other AI&T engineers and the avionics team to turn around in an expedited schedule
• Inform vehicle design
  • Give input into the vehicle CAD model and overall design to reduce harness mass, increase buildability, ensure secure harness tie down locations, and reduce EMI + crosstalk.
  • Lead decisions on the selection of connector solutions for small components such as pressure transducers, cable cutters, heaters, thermistors, and thermocouples. Making trades between connectorization, splicing, where to bundle, etc.
• Manage vendor relationships related to harnessing

What You Bring

• Direct experience designing flight harnessing for space vehicles
• Experience routing harnessing in vehicle CAD models
• Familiarity with harness design tools such as Visio, Siemens, or Zuken
• Strong systems thinking, able to have a strong mental image the operation and connectivity of all spacecraft electrical systems
• Experience working with industry standards for harness design
• Experience working in a fast paced startup environment
• Knowledge of harness design practices for both high power and high frequency signals
• Experience selecting and working with RF cable assemblies
• BS in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.

Bonus If You Have

• Exposure to spacecraft environmental testing (TVAC, thermal cycle, vibration)
• Experience defining harness standards and training others on process compliance.
• Familiarity with configuration management tools and version-controlled documentation.

Come work with us...

We are crazy ambitious but the timing is right. Be part of the team looking to make it happen.

• We are looking to build things to put in space quickly.
• We emphasize creativity and innovation and resources are available to support good ideas.
• Join a team of people working toward the same ambitious goal.
• We are an engaging team looking to empower our teammates.
• You can have a share in the company value creation.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. 

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay tuned on upcoming roles with Karman+. 

If you know someone who'd be a great addition to our team, please encourage them to apply for this role or for our General Application. 

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