At Stoke, we believe a thriving space economy will enable a vibrant, sustainable, and equitable future here on Earth. That is why we’re building Nova, our fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle. Designed for daily flight, Nova tackles the core challenges of space transportation by reducing cost, increasing availability, and improving reliability. By radically lowering launch costs and increasing flight cadence, we’re helping create a truly scalable space industry.
Our team is mission-driven, collaborative, and empowered to take ownership of their work. If you want to work alongside some of the most dedicated and talented people on Earth, we’d love to have you join us.
Description
As Head of Avionics, you will own the end-to-end strategy, architecture, development, qualification, and production scaling for all avionics systems on Stoke's 100% reusable rockets. This includes flight computers, power distribution, sensors, actuators, RF communications, guidance/navigation/control (GNC) interfaces, flight termination systems, and environmental survivability for both ascent and reentry. You will drive innovation in compact, reliable, radiation-tolerant, and rapidly producible avionics tailored to high-cadence reusability - while leading a high-performing team in a fast-paced startup environment.
Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership and strategic direction for the avionics organization, including roadmap development for current (Nova) and next-generation vehicles.
- Own avionics system architecture, requirements, design reviews, verification/validation, and certification/qualification processes to meet mission reliability and reusability goals.
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with propulsion, structures, GNC/software, manufacturing, test, and operations teams to ensure seamless vehicle integration.
- Scale avionics production from prototypes to manufacturing, emphasizing design-for-manufacturability, rapid iteration, and cost reduction.
- Build, mentor, and grow a world-class avionics team, fostering a culture of ownership, speed, and technical excellence.
- Manage budgets, schedules, and resource allocation across avionics subsystems and projects.
- Drive risk reduction through hardware-in-the-loop testing, environmental qualification (vibration, thermal, EMI/EMC, radiation), and flight/vehicle-level testing.
- Support mission planning, anomaly resolution, and post-flight data reviews to continuously improve avionics performance across repeated flights.
- Drive execution against aggressive development schedules while maintaining safety and quality.
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science or Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline, and 10+ years’ experience developing flight-critical avionics for spacecraft, launch vehicles, or other high-reliability systems, or an equivalent combination of education and experience