Sr. Avionics Instrumentation Engineer

Virgin Galactic is seeking a Sr. Avionics Instrumentation Engineer responsible for assisting in the development, integration, installation and analysis of Avionics Instrumentation systems and equipment on new vehicles and spaceships. The position includes both avionics systems tasks and hands-on design, development, and test tasks. The scope of the avionics instrumentation position includes evaluation of flight avionics hardware, a good understanding of signal conditioning, data acquisition concepts, and actuator control/monitoring, RF communication and wire harness elements. The avionics instrumentation engineer will also be involved in the testing and checkout of flight software including hardware interface, vehicle guidance, navigation, control, fault tolerance, ground-support electronics hardware and software, and integrated vehicle health monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Designs and develops flight test instrumentation systems in close collaboration with Avionics and other engineering disciplines.
• Plans designs of telemetry systems for flight test data and live HD video streams.
• Conducts selection of sensors for flight test instrumentation including Strain gauges, thermocouples, pressure transducers, load cells, string pots, and accelerometers.
• Creates installation definition for flight test instrumentation.
• Develops and lead sensor and system level functional checks.
• Supports other departments regarding flight test instrumentation sensor integration.
• Sets flight test instrumentation specifications and ensures equipment compliance.
• Implements and troubleshoots solutions to address hardware and software obsolescence.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and/or combination of education and work experience is required.
• Experience with data acquisition hardware including Acra Controls and/or TTC.
• Experience with mission control room software such as IADS.
• Experience with video encoding hardware such as Vitech.
• Ability to read and generate wiring schematics and installation diagrams using CAD software.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and able to work across organizational teams.
• Working knowledge of sensors for strain, thermodynamics, pressure, and vibration.
• Excellent organizational skills and problem-solving skills.
• Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• 10+ years’ experience as a Flight Test Instrumentation or Avionics/Electrical Engineer preferred
• Experience with the design of flight vehicles or vehicle systems to a set of requirements or standards such as CFR 14, Part 400, Part 23 and 25, military or NASA are highly desired.