Power Systems Engineer at Columbus Technologies and Services

O V ERVIEW

Must be a US Person or Permanent Resident

Duration - 12 month contract position with potential to be extended or converted

W2 with full benefits, 9/80 Work Schedule

Customer and contract specific training will be required and provided.

Location - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (onsite)

Offer contingent on ability to successfully pass a background check and drug screen

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position

JOB DE SCRIPTION

This role supports end-to-end development, integration, test, and delivery of the Moonfall power subsystem, including design maturation, subsystem integration, verification, and mission readiness activities. The engineer works on-Lab at JPL as an embedded member of the power subsystem team under the technical direction of the Power Product Delivery Manager and Power Systems Engineering Lead. The role spans power system design support, test planning and execution, anomaly resolution, and coordination with cross-discipline teams to ensure the power subsystem is safe, reliable, and ready for lunar operations. The ideal candidate takes ownership of problems end-to-end and drives them to closure with minimal oversight.

• Lead or participate in defining, developing, and validating the Moonfall power subsystem, including architecture trades, interface definition, and performance analyses needed for subsystem delivery.
• Plan and execute power subsystem verification campaigns — from defining verification objectives and test sequences through readiness reviews, procedure development, execution, and delivery of verification evidence.
• Support development, checkout, and integration of Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) used to test the power subsystem, including custom electronics, harnessing, power interfaces, and integration of commercial power instrumentation.
• Conduct hands-on integration and test of flight power hardware at all levels, including board, box, and subsystem integration; perform first power-on, functional tests, performance characterization, and environmental test support.
• Author, execute, and maintain disciplined engineering documentation, including test procedures, schematics, interface control artifacts, as-run records, and data packages required for formal verification closure.
• Investigate subsystem anomalies: isolate faults, analyze telemetry and test data, identify root cause, and drive corrective actions in partnership with subsystem designers and mission V&V.
• Coordinate with cognizant subsystem engineers, I&T leadership, mission assurance, and vendors; communicate status, risks, and technical results to ensure alignment across the product team.

REQUIRED SKILLS

The ideal candidate is an engineer who can reason clearly about complex systems — a resourceful, high-level problem solver with strong electrical fundamentals and the ability to guide subsystem development through architecture decisions, design trades, requirements validation, and mission-level integration. They excel at understanding how hardware, interfaces, and requirements interact across the spacecraft, even if they are not the hands-on owner of every component.

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering or related field, with experience in spacecraft power systems, electrical architectures, or mission-level systems engineering.
• Solid understanding of circuit and power system fundamentals, with the ability to evaluate design approaches, review analyses, assess performance margins, and identify risks at the subsystem level.
• Working knowledge of spacecraft power subsystems — converters, batteries, solar array interfaces, power regulation and switching, fault protection — sufficient to perform meaningful architecture trades and interpret verification results.
• Ability to develop and review system and subsystem requirements, interface definitions, block diagrams, fault responses, operational constraints, and verification matrices that govern power subsystem behavior.
• Familiarity with systems-level V&V: defining verification approaches, mapping requirements to evidence, participating in readiness reviews, and interpreting test results at the architectural level.
• Ability to support documentation of electrical architecture, operating modes, flight rules, power budgets, and hardware-software interfaces with clarity and thoroughness.
• Initiative and sound engineering judgment: demonstrated ability to work independently on ambiguous systems-level problems, synthesize technical inputs across disciplines, and drive decisions to closure.
• Role may include supporting anomaly resolution and guiding hardware investigations, ensuring findings are understood in the context of subsystem requirements and mission constraints.

DESIRED SKILLS

• Desired to have existing aerospace flight hardware end-to-end product design and delivery experience.