Founding Electrical Engineer - Own the avionics behind a new class of interceptor systemsHawthorne, California | On-site
Opportunity SummaryJoin a recently funded seed-stage defense technology startup developing a new class of low-cost interceptor systems for emerging airborne threats. The company has already designed, built, and demonstrated working hardware with military users and is now expanding the core engineering team as it moves from early demonstrations toward deployable systems and higher-rate production. As a Founding Electrical Engineer, you will own the vehicle's electrical and avionics architecture from initial design through board development, integration, qualification, flight testing, and production. This is a hands-on role where you will make the decisions behind the electronics, build and debug the hardware yourself, and work directly with the rest of the engineering team to turn flight-test results into better hardware quickly.
About UsWe are a seed-stage defense technology company building compact interceptor systems designed to address the growing challenge of low-cost, high-volume airborne threats. Rather than adapting expensive legacy architectures, the team is developing purpose-built vehicles around speed, maneuverability, manufacturing simplicity, and significantly better cost per engagement. The company operates with a small founding team, has completed successful customer demonstrations, recently secured additional funding, and is building out the engineering organization around several high-ownership technical roles.
Job Duties- Own vehicle avionics and electrical hardware from architecture and schematic capture through PCB layout, bring-up, qualification, and flight
- Design power distribution, power conversion, battery management, and motor or actuator drive electronics
- Integrate flight computers, sensors, communications hardware, actuators, and supporting electronics into a reliable vehicle-level architecture
- Develop mixed-signal electronics within aggressive size, weight, power, and cost constraints
- Own grounding, shielding, signal integrity, and EMI/EMC performance across the vehicle
- Design electrical hardware around manufacturability, component availability, assembly speed, and production cost
- Develop test fixtures and automated test infrastructure for board-level and vehicle-level verification
- Build and execute environmental qualification plans covering vibration, shock, thermal cycling, power cycling, and other flight-relevant conditions
- Design and maintain harnesses, connectors, cable assemblies, and electrical interconnects
- Work directly with PCB fabricators, contract manufacturers, assemblers, and component suppliers to improve lead times and control cost
- Support vehicle integration, ground testing, and flight testing
- Lead electrical troubleshooting, teardown, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions following testing
- Define electrical interfaces and system requirements alongside mechanical, propulsion, embedded software, autonomy, and guidance engineers
- Continuously improve existing hardware while making sound decisions about when a subsystem should be redesigned rather than incrementally modified
Qualifications- Demonstrated experience taking electrical hardware from schematic and PCB design through bring-up, integration, and a deployed, shipped, or flight-tested system
- Strong experience with schematic capture and PCB layout tools
- Solid foundation in analog, digital, power, and mixed-signal electronics
- Experience designing power conversion, power distribution, motor control, actuator drive, or similar high-power electronics
- Strong hands-on debugging skills using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, and other laboratory equipment
- Working knowledge of embedded systems and the firmware interfaces associated with custom electronics
- Experience designing hardware for manufacturability and test
- Practical experience selecting components and working through sourcing, availability, and supply-chain constraints
- Understanding of signal integrity, EMI/EMC, grounding, shielding, and electrical reliability
- Ability to use Python or similar scripting tools for hardware testing, automation, and data analysis
- Strong technical judgment and the ability to independently own electrical decisions through integration and flight
- Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline
- Ability to work on-site in Hawthorne, California
Preferred Experience- Electrical or avionics development for aerospace, missiles, UAS, robotics, autonomous systems, or other complex hardware
- Experience designing electronics for high-vibration, high-shock, thermal, or otherwise harsh operating environments
- Exposure to flight hardware qualification and environmental testing
- Experience supporting high-rate hardware production or significant product cost-reduction efforts
- Experience developing compact electronics under strict mass, volume, power, and cost constraints
- Experience working directly with PCB manufacturers, electronics assemblers, and hardware suppliers
- Previous experience in a small engineering team where individual engineers owned major portions of a vehicle or product
Why Join Us- Join at the seed stage with meaningful influence over the electrical architecture and future product
- Take founding-level ownership of the avionics stack rather than owning a narrow subsystem
- Work on hardware that has already progressed into real-world customer demonstrations
- Move quickly from design decisions to physical hardware, testing, and flight
- Help build systems designed for scalable manufacturing rather than low-volume prototype production
- Meaningful early-stage equity
- Performance-based bonuses for exceptional contributions
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Company-provided meals during working days and launch activities
- Paid time off and company holidays
Compensation Details$130,000 - $180,000
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