Founding Electrical Engineer

Founding Electrical Engineer - Own the avionics behind a new class of interceptor systems

Hawthorne, California | On-site

Opportunity Summary

Join 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 Us

We 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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