Electrical Engineer

Electrical Engineer — Power & High-Voltage Systems

San Francisco
· Full-time
· In Office

Aurelius Systems builds laser weapons that shoot down drones. Not simulations. Not proposals. Real directed energy systems that go downrange.

We're 17 engineers executing against a $151B MDA SHIELD IDIQ contract, field testing monthly on our own 400+ acre range. We shipped more hardware last quarter than most defense startups ship in a year.

Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate — small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind Power Points.

If you've been stuck in a role where you design things that sit in PDR slides for 18 months, this is the opposite of that. You'll see your work fire a laser within weeks of building it.

We need an Electrical Engineer who has actually touched high-voltage hardware — not just simulated it.

You’ll own the power path from battery pack to laser diode. That means designing, building, and field-testing the systems that step up, step down, and deliver power safely to a weapon that has to work every time, in any environment.

This isn't a design it and throw it over the wall role. You’ll solder your own prototypes, pull your own wire harnesses, troubleshoot in the field, and watch your system light up a target.

The feedback loop between your desk and the range is days, not quarters.

• Design and build high-voltage DC/DC converters, rectifiers, inverters, and diode driver electronics (48V+ systems)
• Architect and validate battery management systems — safe charge/discharge, thermal management, and fault protection for high-voltage battery packs
• Step power up and down safely and reliably across the full delivery chain from battery to laser diode
• Build ruggedized wire harnesses for high-power laser and motor systems — connector selection, routing, environmental protection
• Drive hands‑on prototyping, assembly, and field testing of power electronic systems on our range
• Design embedded control electronics — microcontrollers, FPGAs, sensing, telemetry, and fault handling
• Perform electrical simulations (SPICE, MATLAB/Simulink) to optimize performance before you build
• Conduct DFM reviews and work directly with fabricators to get designs into production
• Integrate your electronics with mechanical, optical, and robotics subsystems
• Generate schematics, BOMs, wiring diagrams, and documentation that meets MIL-STD and ITAR requirements

• 2-5 years working with power electronics hardware — not just PCB layout and microcontrollers
• Direct hands‑on experience with 48V+ power systems — you’ve physically built and tested high-voltage circuits
• Experience with battery management systems, high-voltage battery packs, and safe power regulation (step‑up/step‑down)
• You’ve designed and fabricated wire harnesses for real systems, not just reviewed drawings
• Proficient in Altium Designer, SPICE, and MATLAB/Simulink
• Familiarity with thermal management, EMI/EMC, and ruggedized system design

Where you probably come from: Electric vehicle companies, robotics labs, aerospace power systems, directed energy, or defense hardware programs. If you built power systems for a Formula SAE, solar car, or FSAE Electric team and then went pro — we want to talk to you.

Not a fit if: Your experience is primarily semiconductor process engineering, NPI at fabs, or exclusively low‑voltage microcontroller/PCB work. We need people who work at 48V and above, with hands on wire and power hardware.

BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or related field. What you've built matters more than where you went to school.

• Extreme bias for action — you’d rather build a prototype tomorrow than perfect a design for a month
• Rigorous testing mindset — you break your own stuff before the field does
• Clear communicator who can work across mechanical, optical, and software teams
• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment

• Experience with long‑duration system deployment in harsh…