Avionics Technician - Spaceplane
Dawn Aerospace
Salary undisclosed
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Description
Our Mission: Fly to space twice in a day.
At Dawn Aerospace, we are building the Aurora, a reusable rocket-powered spaceplane designed to make access to space as routine as aviation. To support this mission Dawn is looking for an Avionics Technician to join our Avionics Team.
This is a hands-on role focused on building, integrating, and supporting the avionics systems that power the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane. You will work closely with avionics engineers, manufacturing teams, and suppliers to deliver high-quality aircraft systems as we transition the Mk-II Aurora from a research and development platform into a repeatable production aircraft.
You will take ownership of electrical harness manufacture, supply chain coordination, and helping establish the processes and standards that will support future aircraft production. If you want a narrow, heavily structured role, this is probably not for you. We are looking for someone practical, organised, and capable of taking ownership in a fast-moving environment.
What you'll do
- Build, install, and test flight-ready electrical harnesses, including manufacture, lacing, termination, labelling, inspection, routing, continuity testing, fault finding, and verification.
- Support the transition from development to production by improving documentation, work instructions, tooling, and production workflows.
- Integrate avionics systems into aircraft, including flight computers, sensors, radios, antennas, and supporting electronics.
- Configure and verify aircraft electrical systems, and support system-level testing during integration.
- Manage harness and avionics supply chains, including sourcing, bills of materials, procurement, inventory, supplier engagement, harness kits, and production stock.
- Create and maintain design data including electrical schematics, BOMs, standards and SOPs.
- Maintain high standards of workmanship, safety, and documentation.
- Collaborate closely with avionics, mechanical, manufacturing, and flight test teams.
- Contribute ideas and feedback to improve designs, processes, and product quality.
What we're looking for
You will have:
- 5+ years of experience in aircraft, aerospace, or automotive, electrical integration.
- Experience in cable and harness assembly to recognised industry standards, such as NASA-STD-8739.4, IPC/WHMA-A-620, RA-5401, or AC 25-26.
- Proficient in the use of a range of Precision Termination Tooling (PTT) for electrical crimping and terminal installation.
- Experience producing high reliability, safety critical products.
- Experience installing and troubleshooting electrical or avionics systems.
- Experience reading and producing electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and engineering drawings.
- Experience with standard electrical test equipment, such as multimeters, insulation testers, oscilloscopes, or network analysers.
- A strong practical understanding of electrical systems and electronics.
- Experience managing components, inventory, suppliers, or production materials.
- Clear written and spoken English.
Bonus skills, nice to have:
- Aircraft avionics integration experience.
- RF system installation and coaxial harnessing.
- Experience with Rapidharness
- Experience with CAD tools such as SolidWorks Electrical or SolidWorks.
- High-reliability soldering, such as ECSS-Q-ST-70-08.
- PCB assembly, rework, or modification.
- Experience creating manufacturing documentation or work instructions.
- Familiarity with configuration control and production quality systems.
What sets you apart
You enjoy building things that fly. You take pride in producing clean, reliable, and well-documented work. You are equally comfortable on the workshop floor assembling a harness, troubleshooting an aircraft system, or coordinating with suppliers to keep production moving.
You understand that great aircraft are built through repeatable processes, attention to detail, and strong teamwork. You look for ways to improve how things are done and help turn cutting-edge designs into products that can be built again and again.
What we offer
- A chance to work on something that has never been done before.
- Ownership of meaningful hardware from day one.
- Direct involvement in the evolution of the world's highest-performing runway-launched spaceplane.
- A flat, fast-moving culture that rewards initiative.
- The opportunity to help build the foundations of aircraft production at Dawn Aerospace.
Diversity & Inclusion
At Dawn Aerospace, we believe that diverse teams build better solutions. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences are valued and supported to do their best work.
About Dawn Aerospace
Dawn Aerospace is a space transportation company with a purpose.
Our mission is to enable the next generation of space users by providing more sustainable and scalable ways to access and move around in space. We believe this access, in the form of a transportation network, will fundamentally change what’s possible from space. We currently focus on three areas of space transportation:
- In-space propulsion
We're a leading supplier of turnkey green propulsion systems for various classes of satellites. Our systems utilise safe, accessible propellants and we have over 170 of these propulsion units on more than 40 operational satellites already. A further 200 units are in production. - In-space servicing
Coupled with our propulsion expertise, we are ensuring that our customers' satellites are refuellable. In the coming years, Dawn will offer a refueling service to enable life extension of customer satellites. This new market is aligned with our sustainability goal to ensue a clean and safe space for everyone! - Spaceplane
We are developing the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability of conventional airplanes to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to sub-orbital space.
Our international teams are distributed across four locations: the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the USA.
Apply for this Job
Important!
If you think you have what it takes but are unsure that you check every box, we still want to hear from you.
To all recruitment agencies: Dawn Aerospace does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our job’s alias, our employees, or any other company location. Dawn Aerospace will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
About this role
Dawn Aerospace is building the Aurora, a reusable rocket-powered spaceplane designed to make space access routine, and they need an Avionics Technician in Christchurch to help make that real. This hands-on role centers on building, integrating, and supporting the avionics systems that will fly the Mk-II Aurora. You'll own electrical harness manufacture from lacing and termination through testing and verification, integrate flight computers and sensors into the aircraft, troubleshoot systems during integration and flight test, and manage the supply chain for harnesses and avionics components. The work spans the workshop floor, the test bench, and coordination with engineering and manufacturing teams.
What sets this apart is the transition phase: you're not just maintaining existing processes but helping establish the standards, documentation, tooling, and workflows that will enable repeatable production of a spaceplane. The role demands someone with at least five years of aerospace or automotive electrical integration experience, solid grounding in harness assembly to industry standards like IPC/WHMA-A-620, proficiency with precision termination tooling, and the ability to read schematics and troubleshoot systems. Experience with high-reliability, safety-critical products is essential.
This is a role for someone practical and organised who thrives in a fast-moving environment and wants real ownership. You'll need to be equally comfortable assembling a harness, diagnosing an electrical fault, or working with suppliers to keep production on track. If you're looking for a narrow, heavily structured position, this isn't it. But if you take pride in clean, reliable work and want to help turn cutting-edge aerospace design into something that can be built again and again, this is a genuine opportunity to shape how a new spaceplane gets made.
How this employer is doing
solid
- Recently Raised Funding
- Expanding
In the news
Dawn Aerospace closes $25 million Series B for global reusable space transportation expansion, CompositesWorld
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