Lead Avionics Engineer

About the Company:


We are a stealth-mode Aerospace & Defense startup headquartered in El Segundo, CA. Our founding team hails from SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin, and we are backed by Joint Staff-level military leadership and several  Silicon Valley firms. With a world-class business development & leadership team already in place, we are well positioned to capitalize on already overwhelming demand.


Job Overview:
We’re seeking a Lead Avionics Engineer to own the design, manufacturing, and integration of the embedded electronics stack that powers our next-generation flight systems. You’ll be responsible for the full lifecycle of flight-critical PCB designs—from block diagrams and part selection to layout, firmware integration, and bring-up.

You’ll work closely with flight software, mechanical, and GNC teams to deliver . If you’ve built complex mixed-signal embedded systems that had to work the first time, and you want to lead the development of the most critical hardware on a system that matters—this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

  • Architect and design embedded avionics systems including power, compute, sensing, actuation, and communication subsystems
  • Lead schematic design, component selection, PCB layout, and design reviews
  • Own the integration of flight electronics with firmware and flight software teams
  • Manage board-level bring-up, debugging, and validation in lab and field test environments
  • Guide board-level manufacturing, testing, and assembly processes (both in-house and external vendors)
  • Define and enforce electrical system-level requirements, interfaces, and standards across subsystems
  • Establish test procedures for validation, environmental, and EMC/ESD qualification
  • Build and mentor a high-performance hardware team as the company scales

Basic Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
  • 7+ years of experience designing, building, and testing embedded electronics for aerospace, defense, robotics, or automotive systems
  • Proven experience delivering complex, multi-board avionics or embedded systems from concept to production
  • Strong proficiency in schematic capture, layout (Altium preferred), and board-level signal and power integrity design
  • Experience with embedded microcontrollers, digital buses (CAN, SPI, UART, I2C), sensor integration, and power regulation
  • Familiarity with environmental design constraints including thermal, EMI/EMC, shock, and vibration

Preferred Qualifications

  • Master’s degree or equivalent experience in avionics or high-reliability hardware systems
  • Experience with radiation-tolerant design practices or high-altitude avionics
  • Familiarity with NVIDIA Jetson platforms, STM32, RP2040, or other aerospace-class embedded systems
  • Experience in design-for-manufacture and supply chain planning for high-mix, low-volume aerospace production
  • Experience with rapid prototyping, in-house assembly, and validation test campaigns
  • Prior work in systems where the hardware must survive extreme environments (missiles, launch vehicles, hypersonic systems)

Engineering

El Segundo, CA

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