Payload Systems Engineer I

As a Payload Engineer I at Lodestar, you’ll join the payload team as a primary delivery engineer, taking the payload from laboratory breadboard to qualified engineering model.

You’ll help design, build, integrate and test the payload across optics, mechanical, avionics and software. Working alongside senior systems, GNC, electronics and optics engineers, you’ll take the engineering model through design reviews, integration and qualification.

This is an early-career role with a deliberately broad scope. We’re looking for hands-on building experience and fast learning rather than a long track record, and you’ll own the engineering model from day one with the support to grow into it., * Own the payload engineering model day to day, end to end: requirements, design, build, integration, test and write-up

• Develop payload, autonomy, effector, power, thermal and pointing requirements, and the ICDs between payload, avionics and spacecraft bus
• Prepare SRR, PDR and CDR packages, and keep the verification matrix and risk register current between reviews
• Integrate the engineering model: effector subsystem, edge-compute avionics, and a multimodal sensor suite (optical, LiDAR, radar)
• Carry out optical alignment and performance verification, and feed corrective design iterations back into the build
• Run hardware-in-the-loop testing in the Void Lab, closing the loop from perception through to pointing against simulated orbital targets
• Support environmental qualification (TVAC, launch vibration, EMC/EMI), including pre- and post-test functional testing and the anomaly and corrective-action trail
• Deliver an end-to-end ground demonstration on a payload-in-the-loop testbed
• Produce technical documentation: test reports, qualification records, and performance assessments against requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, Physics, Optics or Photonics, Robotics, Computer Science, or demonstrated equivalent knowledge
• 0-2 years of professional experience. Early-career candidates, including recent graduates, are encouraged to apply
• Hands-on evidence of building something real and making it work, such as a university cubesat or rocketry team, research lab, Formula Student, a hardware internship, or a project taken from nothing to working. We weight this far above grades
• Working proficiency in Python, * Space exposure in any form: cubesat program, hosted payload, space or defense internship, or a space-focused Master’s project
• Optics and photonics bench work (laser safety experience, e.g. ANSI Z136, a plus)
• Computer vision
• Closed-loop pointing and control
• Environmental test and integration
• Systems engineering practice
• Embedded or real-time software

• (P1) Entry: $99,000 - $133,000 / year

• Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
• Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• Los Angeles, 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 and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.