Stellar Exploration is Hiring!

Overview

At Stellar Exploration, we engineer by taking on challenging responsibilities, and back each other up with the trust and resources we require.

Nobody at stellar is solely a technician, drafter, analyst, or designer; everyone is expected to be fully responsible for their subsystem through design, prototyping, testing, analysis, manufacturing, and integration. And at the end of the day, when everyone’s hardware works, the whole company succeeds - so we all have the same incentive to respect each other, provide critical feedback, and ask for help when we need it. That way, we can all hit our number one metric - hardware that works.

We’re looking for intelligent and engaged engineers who want to join us to build it.

roles & responsibilities

We are seeking design engineers to work in a supportive and collaborative team to create this best-in-class spacecraft hardware. The ideal candidate is an engineer who has a passion for space exploration, thrives in an interdisciplinary environment, and has the determination to create successful, reliable hardware.

Additional desired qualities include:

  • Experience with engineering design, including modeling, building, testing, analysis, documentation, and delivery.

  • Eagerness to learn and teach to communicate complex technical concepts and share knowledge with others.

  • Strong background in mathematics, engineering, and the natural sciences.

  • Hands-on experiences with building hardware in a project, laboratory, or workplace setting.

  • Literacy in at least one computer programming language.

In addition, individual job requirements will be tailored to both your background and our current needs. The following are examples of common job responsibilities at Stellar Exploration, although experience is not necessarily required in any of the following:

  • Mechanical engineering: designing jigs and assemblies, CAD drafting and review, FEA simulations, developing hardware integration procedures, and cleaning, assembling, and welding hardware.

  • Electrical engineering: Component selection and PCB design, circuit debugging and rework, power electronics & RF system design, and FPGA hardware programming.

  • Aerospace & systems engineering: system design and optimization, program lifecycle management, clean room assembly, managing and conducting hotfire test campaigns.

  • Software engineering: embedded systems design and systems programming, developing real-time software and hardware testing libraries, time-series data analysis, and supporting company-wide automation.

Interviewing

Stellar typically follows a 3-round interview format, including:

  • A 30-45 minute introductory chat

  • A 45-60 minute resume & technical discussion

  • An in-person design review presentation

We understand that applicants have widely different locations, availability, and time constraints, and we’ll be sure to make our interview process work for you.

Internships

Stellar is proud of its interns! We recruit from several career fairs and have a competitive application process, and launch our interns right into design projects right from day 1. We hire full-time summer or school year co-op internships and part-time internships with local students. Several interns have joined us for repeat internships and as full-time hires. Get in touch with us, and let us know what you’re looking for!

Culture + Perks

We have a great PPO Gold health care plan and a 100% flexible time off policy, as well as several other incidentals, including gym memberships, lunches, site visits to Vandenberg Space Force Base, and travel to industry conferences. San Luis Obispo is a beautiful coastal college town with strong agricultural and outdoors communities. You’ll find lively farmer’s markets, plenty of local wineries, and several biking routes and surf spots close by.

get in touch

If the above sounds good to you, reach out to us with a resume, portfolio, or any documentation that shows that you've built/owned cool things. If there's a possible fit, we'll schedule some time to learn more about your background. Reach us at careers@stellar-exploration.com.