About You:You are a motivated and detail-oriented electrical engineer who is excited to help develop next-generation autonomous aerospace systems. You thrive in fast-paced startup environments where collaboration, ownership, and technical excellence are critical to success. You bring experience designing and integrating complex electrical systems for aerospace, robotics, autonomous systems, or other high-performance hardware applications.
You enjoy solving challenging technical problems and working across multidisciplinary teams to bring advanced hardware from concept through flight testing and production. You are comfortable balancing rapid development timelines with the rigor required for mission-critical systems and regulated environments. You are hands-on, adaptable, and passionate about building reliable, scalable electrical architectures that enable autonomous flight.
Responsibilities:- Design, develop, and integrate electrical systems and hardware for autonomous aircraft platforms including power distribution, avionics interfaces, harnessing, sensors, communications, and embedded electronics
- Create schematics, wiring diagrams, and electrical documentation to support prototype and production hardware builds
- Support electrical architecture development, component selection, system integration, and hardware validation activities
- Collaborate closely with mechanical, avionics, software, systems engineering, manufacturing, and flight test teams to ensure seamless integration across aircraft systems
- Perform electrical analysis, troubleshooting, and root cause investigations to resolve hardware and integration issues
- Support prototype assembly, hardware bring-up, integration testing, environmental testing, and flight test operations
- Develop and execute electrical test plans, validation procedures, and qualification activities
- Work with suppliers and manufacturing partners to support fabrication, sourcing, and production readiness efforts
- Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives focused on reliability, manufacturability, weight optimization, power efficiency, and system performance
- Operate effectively in a fast-moving development environment with evolving priorities and aggressive execution schedules
Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related engineering discipline
- 3-5 years of professional electrical engineering experience in aerospace, autonomous systems, robotics, automotive, defense, or other high-performance hardware industries
- Experience designing and integrating electrical systems for complex electromechanical platforms
- Experience creating wiring diagrams, wiring harness documentation, and electrical integration drawings
- Knowledge of power systems, signal integrity, embedded hardware, sensors, communications interfaces, and avionics integration principles
- Hands-on experience with hardware bring-up, lab debugging, electrical testing, and troubleshooting
- Familiarity with oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, and other electrical lab equipment
- Understanding of EMC/EMI considerations, grounding strategies, and reliability-focused design practices
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering teams
- Experience supporting autonomous aircraft, UAVs, eVTOL platforms, robotics systems, or flight hardware development is highly preferred
- Hands-on mechanical prototyping a plus (3d printing, laser cutting, etc.)
- Familiarity with FAA certification environments, aerospace standards, or regulated development processes is a plus
Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top-notch benefits package (health, dental, life, unlimited vacation, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission.
