Staff Engineer, Early Engagement

Company Overview

Second Order Effects (SOE) is an engineering consulting firm that specializes in electrical, electromechanical, and embedded systems. Founded in 2016, SOE has grown from a 3‑person operation to a team of over 40 members across offices in El Segundo, California and Redmond, Washington. Over the last nine years, we have completed over 250 projects and serviced over 100 different customers. Our designs control rocket engines, manage satellite communications, instrument fusion reactors, and are enjoyed by consumers around the world.

The only thing we won’t build are weapons.

Second Order Effects practices a “first principles approach” to technical problems, breaking down complex challenges into their most fundamental components. This enables us to find solutions across industries, use cases, and engineering functions.

We are seeking a Staff Engineer to join our Early Engagement team and lead the front end of complex system development efforts. In this role, you will serve as SOE’s senior technical authority during early client engagements, partnering closely with customers to translate business needs into well‑defined, technically sound system architectures. Your expertise, judgment, and ability to frame problems will be central to why clients trust SOE with their most challenging engineering work.

You will operate with a high degree of autonomy, guiding ambiguous problem spaces toward clear technical direction and asking the critical questions needed to reduce risk and create alignment. As a senior technical leader, you will architect multidisciplinary solutions across industries, mentor engineers, and help shape SOE’s early engagement practices to support long‑term growth and technical excellence.

• Lead Client Technical Engagement:
  Serve as the primary technical leader throughout early customer engagement, from discovery through contract close.
• Architect Systems for Value:
  Drive the requirements discovery, analysis, and negotiation process, leveraging divergent thinking to explore the solution space and convergent thinking to define and champion a robust system architecture that delivers mutual value.
• Drive Cross‑Functional Alignment:
  Lead collaboration across engineering disciplines during early engagement, ensuring clear alignment and effective handoff from architecture to detailed development.
• Champion Organizational Growth:
  Act as a force multiplier by mentoring technical staff, establishing systems and processes that elevate our capabilities, and fostering a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement.
• Own the Outcome:
  Be accountable for the technical success of early engagements, partnering with Business Development to make data‑driven decisions that balance near‑term execution with long‑term strategy.

• Education:
  
  Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, or Mathematics (required); a graduate degree in a relevant engineering discipline is highly preferred.
• Experience:
  
  15+ years of engineering experience in client‑facing roles, system architecture, or senior technical leadership with a track record of delivering complex systems involving custom electronics.
• Domain Expertise:
  Demonstrated ability to analyze and deconstruct novel and complex problems within a core domain, and evaluate critical judgments about different technical solutions.
• Systems Engineering Mastery:
  Deep experience applying systems engineering principles in ambiguous, early‑stage environments, including requirements development, trade studies, and architecture definition.
• Strategic Leadership:
  Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences, including senior client stakeholders, and act as a trusted technical advisor externally and a mentor internally.
• Compensation range: $172,640–$205,010 + equity incentive plan.
• Work flexibility:
  Flexible work hours, work‑from‑home policy, unlimited paid time off, 11 paid company holidays, 12 paid sick days, 401(k) retirement account with employer matching, generous paid parental leave, relocation assistance for those 50+ miles away, daily catered lunches,…