Company details

HEADCOUNT

100-499

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Transportation & Infrastructure

WEBSITE

http://www.astranis.com/

About the company

Astranis builds satellites designed for high orbits, selling dedicated communications capacity to customers like enterprises, sovereign governments, and the U.S. military. Public materials describe a backlog of more than $1B in commercial contracts and a plan to launch many more satellites beyond the first handful already on orbit. Astranis designs, builds, and operates satellites from a large Northern California headquarters and emphasizes tight integration between hardware, software, and operations teams. Hiring language leans mission-driven and high-intensity, with a strong in-person culture.

Locations and presence

Astranis is headquartered in San Francisco, California and explicitly hires for onsite work at the San Francisco HQ. Many roles include U.S. export-control eligibility requirements, which narrows who can be hired for a meaningful slice of the technical team.

Palpable Score

69.5

/ 100

Astranis offers unusually direct early-career entry for a deep-tech company through a large set of seasonal internships plus a distinct 12-week Associate program built for new grads. The main tradeoff is that the hiring and work model is demanding and not equally accessible, and Astranis does not publish consistent early-career outcomes like conversion rates, promotions, or retention.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

16.5

/ 20

The company runs a broad “Student Intern and Associate Engineering Program” with many internship openings across avionics, propulsion, mechanical, mission operations, and embedded software.
Astranis hires new graduates into 12-week Associate roles that are explicitly positioned as paid, degree-targeted entry points, including roles like Guidance, Navigation, and Control Engineer Associate and FPGA Associate.
The company frequently requires U.S. citizenship or permanent residency for space-technology export compliance in these early-career roles, which reduces entry-level access for international graduates.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

12.5

/ 20

The company publishes specific pay information for early-career roles, including fixed weekly pay for Associate positions and salary bands for some full-time roles.
Astranis asks candidates to commit to being onsite five days a week, and at least one full-time application explicitly asks whether the candidate can commit to 55 hours per week, which raises the burden on junior applicants.
The company has mixed candidate experience signals in public interview feedback, including a below-50% positive interview experience rate and reports of wide variation in time-to-hire by role.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

13.5

/ 20

The company states that Associates and interns are given meaningful, real project work “no matter their seniority,” including hardware and software that can ship to space.
Astranis points applicants who have already graduated toward the Associate pathway and students toward internships, which creates a clearer early-career structure than “apply to everything” job boards.
The company does not publish a dependable onboarding plan, mentorship structure, or manager cadence for junior hires beyond broad culture statements, so support is hard to evaluate before joining.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

15.5

/ 20

The company lists a robust benefits package on the careers page, including medical, dental, and vision for employees and dependents, parental leave, disability benefits, and a 401(k).
Astranis includes equity in compensation language across roles and backs pay-setting with references to salary surveys and compensation data sources in job descriptions.
The company’s expected intensity, including the stated 55-hour workweek question in at least one application, weakens pay fairness for early-career hires because total hourly value can drop even when headline pay looks strong.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

11.5

/ 20

The company says many past interns have become full-time employees, which is a positive conversion signal, but Astranis does not publish cohort-level conversion rates.
Astranis has public employee review signals that point to strong “career opportunities” but weaker work-life balance, which matters for early-career sustainability.
The company’s LinkedIn footprint supports that Astranis is large enough for internal mobility, but Astranis does not publish promotion timelines, leveling examples, or 12–24 month retention data for early-career hires.

Useful links & resources

Astranis Careers Student Intern and Associate Engineering Program listings Guidance, Navigation, and Control Engineer Associate (Summer 2026)