Senior Radiation Effects & Resilience Engineer Seen this week

About Cowboy Space

Cowboy Space Corp. is building infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our satellites in Low Earth Orbit collect sunlight and enable new capabilities: powering on-orbit compute, transmitting energy via infrared lasers, and delivering secure, high-bandwidth optical data.

The Role

This role is ideal for engineers who combine deep physics and radiation expertise with strong systems intuition and interest in building large-scale compute infrastructure beyond Earth. You will be located onsite in San Carlos, California or Seattle, Washington.

Responsibilities

• Lead radiation effects analysis and resilience strategy for orbital compute systems
• Analyze radiation effects on advanced semiconductor devices including GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs, networking ASICs, memory subsystems, and power electronics
• Evaluate and develop mitigation techniques for SEU, SET, SEL, TID, and displacement damage
• Define architectural resilience strategies including ECC, redundancy, fault detection and recovery, and software-defined fault tolerance mechanisms
• Plan and execute radiation test campaigns
• Coordinate with external laboratories and test facilities to define test conditions, sample preparation, biasing configurations, and data collection methodologies
• Analyze radiation test results and derive reliability metrics including cross-section analysis, FIT estimation, and mission reliability projections
• Develop radiation hardness assurance (RHA) methodologies for compute platforms and high-density PCB systems
• Collaborate with mechanical and packaging teams on shielding and structural mitigation strategies
• Investigate radiation-induced anomalies and drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions
• Contribute to component selection, platform architecture, and deployment readiness reviews

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years hands-on experience in radiation effects analysis, radiation testing, or space systems reliability engineering
• Deep understanding of radiation interactions with semiconductor devices and electronic systems
• Strong knowledge of Total Ionizing Dose (TID), Single Event Effects (SEE), and Displacement Damage (DDD)
• Experience planning and executing radiation characterization campaigns with external test facilities
• Experience working with high-performance compute hardware, semiconductor devices, or spaceborne electronics

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with architectural fault tolerance and resilient distributed systems
• Knowledge of NASA, ESA, ECSS, or MIL-STD radiation qualification standards
• Experience with shielding optimization and materials
• Experience running radiation simulations and material characterization

Why This Role Is Different

• Own critical hardware systems, not just a small component
• Fast iteration cycles with direct path from design to hardware testing
• Work closely across disciplines in a tightly integrated team
• High autonomy and ownership with real impact on the spacecraft
• Opportunity to help define hardware systems for a new class of space infrastructure

Compensation and Benefits

Salary range: $185,000 to $200,000 annually. Actual base salary depends on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

• Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per calendar year
• Paid parental leave
• Relocation assistance if applicable
• Daily lunch in the office and fully stocked kitchen

ITAR Requirement

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicants 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 required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.