Principal Hardware Engineer – TeraWave Network Switch Platform

Principal Hardware Engineer – Network Switch Platform 

Blue Origin's Emerging Systems business unit is building TeraWave, a satellite communications constellation powered by the most advanced optical communications architecture ever attempted: thousands of optically interconnected satellites delivering symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth, providing enterprise and hyperscale customers with resilient, scalable connectivity for critical operations where terrestrial infrastructure cannot reach. 

You will own the end-to-end hardware design of the switching subsystem from high-speed Ethernet switch and PHY integration to power architecture, embedded management controllers, and high-speed PCB layout. This is a hands-on role for an engineer who has designed and shipped complex electronic products in fast-moving environments and wants to apply that experience to hardware operating at orbital scale. 

Special Mentions:

• Relocation assistance is available for qualified candidates. 

• Travel: Up to 25%. 

Responsibilities: 

Embedded Management & Microprocessor Architecture 

• Architect BMC subsystems using MPSoC, ARM, or RISC-V microprocessors to monitor line card health, thermal sensors, and voltage rails. 

• Design and integrate low-level communication buses (I2C, SPI, PMBus, SMBus, RS-485, CAN) for hardware telemetry and sequencing control. 

• Develop hardware watchdog circuits and redundant boot sequences for fault recovery. Enable in-flight firmware reprogrammability via ground link, including secure update and rollback mechanisms. 

Power Distribution & Regulation 

• Architect high-reliability power distribution with autonomous sequencing, redundant paths (e.g., ORing controllers), and fault isolation to eliminate single points of failure. 

• Specify and integrate radiation-hardened or radiation-tolerant components rated for SEE and TID in the target orbital environment. 

• Design power stages for thermal-vacuum operation, emphasizing high-efficiency topologies and conduction/radiation thermal transfer. 

• Architect low-noise power trees using high-PSRR LDOs and multi-stage LC filtering to protect sensitive analog and high-speed digital lanes. 

Signal & Power Integrity 

• Lead SPICE-based transient analysis and hardware validation of load step responses, switching transients, and voltage ripple to millivolt-level tolerances. 

• Develop EMI/EMC mitigation strategies — grounding architecture, decoupling optimization, power/signal plane isolation — to prevent crosstalk between power distribution and high-speed data paths. 

Hardware Design, Integration & Test 

• Lead multi-layer PCB design for switch line cards: stackup definition, impedance-controlled routing, thermal management, and DFM. 

• Manage CCA BOM procurement, vendor coordination, and assembly oversight. 

• Integrate BSPs, SDKs, and device drivers for Ethernet switching and network processor components in collaboration with firmware and software teams. 

• Architect and bring up high-performance Ethernet switching systems, including NPU/switch ASIC integration, PHY and SerDes tuning, VLAN configuration, and MAC-level validation across high-density line cards. 

• Resolve complex hardware-software interface issues across L1 and L2, including physical layer bring-up, transceiver integration, and MAC-level debugging. 

• Lead factory acceptance testing, physical layer validation (optical transceivers, high-density copper), and commissioning of switch hardware. 

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field. 

• 10+ years of experience in hardware design, power electronics, or embedded systems in a product development environment. 

• Track record of designing and shipping complex electronic products through development into production. 

• Experience designing multi-layer PCBs with high-speed digital interfaces and mixed-signal power distribution; proficiency in Altium, Cadence, or equivalent. 

• Hands-on experience designing and integrating high-speed Ethernet switch hardware, including network processors (NPUs), SerDes interfaces, and optical or copper PHY technologies. 

• Strong knowledge of power supply design (DC-DC converters, LDOs, sequencing, transient analysis) with hands-on SPICE simulation experience. 

• Experience with embedded microprocessor design (ARM, RISC-V, or similar) including BSP integration and peripheral bus bring-up (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN). 

• Practical EMI/EMC mitigation and signal/power integrity analysis experience. 

• Excellent technical documentation and communication skills. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering. 
• 15+ years of relevant experience. 
• Experience with radiation effects on electronics (SEE, TID, displacement damage) and mitigation techniques. 
• Experience designing electronics for space, aviation, or other high-reliability thermal-vacuum environments. 
• Experience with FPGA or ASIC integration in board management or data-path contexts.
• Background in production hardware including DFM/DFT practices, supply chain coordination, and yield optimization. 
• Hands-on environmental qualification testing (TVAC, vibration, EMI/EMC). 

Why Blue Origin 

At Blue Origin, we are driven by Gradatim Ferociter — "Step by Step, Ferociously." As a Principal Hardware Engineer on the Network Switch Platform, you will design the foundational hardware connecting an orbital constellation at unprecedented scale, alongside world-class engineers solving problems at the intersection of high-performance networking and spaceflight.