Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
3+ years of experience in avionics or embedded hardware design and testing, preferably in aerospace or defense.
Proficiency in EDA tools for schematic capture and PCB layout (e.g., Altium, KiCad).
Experience with high-speed digital interfaces and signal integrity management.
Hands-on skills in soldering, crimping, and board assembly/rework.
Responsibilities
Own schematic design and PCB layout for embedded avionics boards.
Perform power budgeting and design robust power architectures.
Design wire harnesses and produce build documentation.
Generate fabrication drawings and manage component sourcing.
Drive board bring-up and execute test campaigns for design validation.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams for integration and support.
Benefits
Equity participation.
Healthcare coverage.
Flexible PTO.
Professional development opportunities.
Full Job Description
About the role
We're hiring a hands-on electrical engineer to join our team building space hardware systems. You'll act as the responsible engineer for the high-speed embedded electronics and interconnects on real flight hardware, owning boards and harnesses from concept through schematic, layout, build, bring-up, qualification, and flight integration. While you should be experienced with high-speed digital board design, this isn't a narrow specialist role; we are seeking a generalist who is as comfortable at the test bench and the design station, sees the big picture, moves fast, and thrives on solving a new problem every day.
What you'll do
High-Speed Digital Design: Own schematic design, component selection, and PCB layout for embedded avionics boards, including compute, networking, interface, and interconnect hardware. Design high-speed digital interfaces and memory and gigabit links with proper timing closure, develop clocking and clock distribution architectures, and manage stack-up, controlled impedance, and signal integrity from first principles.
Power & Reliability: Perform power budgeting and system-level power allocation across board subsystems. Design robust power architectures with sequencing, protection, and fault recovery. Apply radiation-tolerant design techniques, including SEE mitigation, TID considerations, and appropriate component derating, to produce highly reliable electronics for extreme environments
Harness Design: Design wire harnesses and cable assemblies for flight and ground systems, including connector selection, pinouts, wire routing, shielding, and strain relief. Produce harness drawings and build documentation to workmanship standards.
Build & Sourcing: Generate fabrication and assembly drawings, BOMs, and build instructions. Source components and manage fabrication and assembly vendors for prototype and low-rate production builds. Assemble, rework, and troubleshoot boards and harnesses by hand, and design fixtures and tooling to simplify recurring work
Bring-Up, Test & Qualification: Drive board bring-up including configuration, interface verification, and structured debugging down to the component level. Define acceptance and qualification test requirements, then develop and execute bench, functional, and environmental test campaigns to prove out the design.
Integration: Collaborate with software, mechanical, thermal, and manufacturing teams through design reviews and cross-functional integration. Provide hands-on support for assembly, test, and integration in San Francisco and at customer facilities.
Qualifications
Education: Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field.
Experience: 3+ years of professional experience in avionics or embedded hardware design, analysis, and unit-level testing, preferably in aerospace, defense, robotics, or similar
Technical skills:
Proficiency in a modern EDA tool for schematic capture and multi-layer PCB layout (Altium, KiCad, or similar)
Experience designing high-speed digital interfaces and embedded compute hardware, including signal integrity, timing closure, and length/impedance- matched routing
Experience with analog, digital, and mixed-signal multi-layer PCB design, including power supply design
Experience designing wire harnesses and creating harness drawings
Experience with board bring-up and debug using standard avionics test equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, and current probes
Comfortable at the bench with soldering, crimping, and hands-on assembly and rework
Experience sourcing components and working with fabrication and assembly vendors
Ability to produce clear design documentation, drawings, and test procedures
Preferences:
Expeditionary mindset: you have the curiosity and drive to ask big questions about the natural world and deploy systems to extreme environments to answer those questions
Experience as a responsible engineer for flight hardware from conception through qualification and flight
Experience with space systems, satellites, or aerospace hardware development
Familiarity with radiation effects (SEE, SEU, TID) and mitigation techniques
Experience designing around system-on-module or embedded compute platforms
Familiarity with IPC workmanship standards (IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620) and NASA workmanship standards
Basic scripting (Python or similar) for test automation and data analysis
Previous start-up work experience
What We Offer
Equity participation, healthcare, flexible PTO, and professional development opportunities.
