Lead Electrical Engineer; UAV​/UAS

Lead Electrical Engineer (UAV/UAS)

Full Time Professionals Rockville, MD, US

Ideal Aerosmith is a leading supplier of precision inertial guidance test systems, flight motion simulators, innovative defense solutions in support of the warfighter, and a premier provider of aerospace test engineering services, ATE system engineering, and quality contract manufacturing services to the aerospace industry. We're experts and we earn that title everyday with our customers through innovative engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment of world-class motion and electric test solutions and services.

Here, we don’t just solve complex problems - we redefine what’s possible. Every role at Ideal Aerosmith supports a lean culture through continuous improvement - ongoing, incremental enhancements to products, processes, or services aimed at reducing waste and boosting efficiency, customer service, and performance. With a team of skilled problem solvers and a culture that thrives on tackling challenges head-on, we are dedicated to our clients' success.

Enjoy competitive benefits, a supportive work environment, and every other Friday off to recharge.

The Lead Electrical Engineer will provide hands-on technical leadership for the design, integration, and performance of complex electrical systems supporting Ideal Aerosmith’s unmanned platforms, including UAVs and USVs. We’re building the next generation of unmanned systems for the warfighter and are looking for an experienced electrical engineer who enjoys building things and still wants to work directly with hardware.

This role will help guide the electrical team and make system-level technical decisions while remaining directly involved in design, build, integration, testing, and troubleshooting. You might spend one day working through a power-distribution architecture and the next tracking down a noisy CAN bus, reviewing a circuit board, building a test harness, or troubleshooting an aircraft before flight test.

We value engineers who are naturally curious, work well across mechanical, software, manufacturing, supply chain, and flight-test teams, and can make sound decisions in a fast-moving development environment. If you want real technical ownership, interesting hardware, and the chance to see your work built, tested, and flown, this could be a great fit.

• Lead the design and development of UAV and USV electrical architectures, including power distribution, avionics, communications, controls, sensors, and payload integration.
• Own and guide end-to-end electrical system architecture, including power, data, RF, and control interfaces.
• Serve as a lead electrical system integrator across internal subsystems, external vendors, and program partners.
• Define and manage electrical interfaces and documentation, including ICDs, schematics, wiring diagrams, pinouts, BOMs, electrical specifications, test plans, and configuration-controlled design data.
• Lead system-level trade studies involving power budgets, bandwidth, thermal impacts, reliability, EMI/EMC, scalability, and cost.
• Design, review, debug, and redesign electrical circuits and printed circuit boards as needed to support development and integration.
• Support electrical systems involving BLDC motors and motor controllers, battery systems, chargers, battery management systems (BMS), cell-balancing circuits, DC/DC converters, MOSFET switching, power distribution, and protection circuits.
• Integrate and troubleshoot embedded systems and communications interfaces, including CAN, UART, SPI, Ethernet, microcontrollers, flight computers, radios, sensors, and payloads.
• Lead grounding, shielding, EMI/EMC, and transient-protection design and mitigation efforts, including resolution of issues identified…