Electrical Engineer - Avionics

Electrical Engineer – Avionics

Wardstone (YC F25) is looking for a hands‑on Electrical Engineer to lead the development of high‑reliability electronics for our interceptor prototypes and future VLEO satellites.

Base pay range: $100,000 – $160,000 per year

Responsibilities:

• Design, simulate, and develop PCBs for sensing, actuation, power, and avionics.
• Own schematic capture, layout, DFM, component selection, and vendor interaction.
• Develop high‑reliability power systems (DC–DC, battery systems, protection circuits, transient management).
• Integrate IR cameras, radar, IMUs, GNSS, radiation‑hard components, and electromechanical actuators.
• Develop signal‑conditioning circuits, sensor‑fusion interfaces, and low‑latency sensing‑plus‑actuation to enable the autopilot to control the vehicle.
• Perform thermal, vibration, and shock analysis for over 100 km altitude environments.
• Support hardware qualification: TVAC, vibration, EMI/EMC, and high‑G ground testing.
• Collaborate closely with embedded software engineers on microcontroller architectures, drivers, and electrical‑firmware interfaces.
• Bring‑up, debug, test, and iterate hardware in the lab using scopes, logic analyzers, DAQs, etc.
• Write requirements, test plans, and documentation.
• Lead the hardware end‑to‑end lifecycle from concept to prototype to test to flight‑ready.
• Rapidly debug and converge on functional, high‑performance solutions.

Required qualifications:

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Strong experience with PCB design tools (KiCad, Altium, or similar).
• Hands‑on prototyping experience: soldering, re‑work, bring‑up, rapid iteration.
• Experience integrating sensors, mixed‑signal electronics, or power systems.
• Comfort with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and test equipment.
• Strong fundamentals in circuit analysis, signal integrity, noise, grounding, and EMI/EMC.
• Ability to own hardware end‑to‑end: design, build, test, debug, iterate.
• US citizenship required.

Nice to have:

• Experience with IR cameras, high‑speed digital buses, or RF systems.
• Background in aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, or satellites.
• Knowledge of high‑G design, radiation effects, or space‑environment electronics.
• Embedded firmware experience (C/C++, STM
  32/Teensy/PIC/ESP
  32, RTOS).
• Familiarity with power systems, motor drives, or actuator control.
• Experience with MIL‑STD‑461, DO‑160, or NASA/ESA flight hardware standards.

Seniority level:
Entry level

Employment type:

Full‑time
Job function:
Engineering and Information Technology
Industries:
Defense and Space Manufacturing

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