Hardware Engineer

Who We Are:

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.

We're a small team of ~10 engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.

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 the unachievable.

In addition to our San Francisco lab, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

If you are the kind of engineer who'd rather see your work on a range than in a lab, read on.

We need a Hardware Engineer who can own structural and thermal design for a laser weapon system being built from scratch. You'll run FEA, develop thermal solutions, and drive prototype validation. This isn't a simulation role. You'll be in the lab building things, in the field breaking them, and back at the bench fixing them.

Concept through production. Hands on the whole way.

• Develop and validate thermal solutions — passive and active — for high power laser modules including conjugate heat transfer and transient thermal simulations

• Perform stress, vibration, and modal analyses using ANSYS, Solid Works Simulation, or equivalent and use results to optimize designs for durability, weight, and dynamic loads

• Create and refine CAD models for thermal management and structural prototypes

• Drive hands on prototyping via CNC, additive, or rapid fabrication with an extreme bias toward testing. This includes plan and execute vibration, shock, environmental, and robustness tests under real field conditions

• Conduct DFM reviews to optimize geometry, tolerances, and material selection and work directly with suppliers and fabricators to get designs into production

• Evaluate metals, polymers, and composites for mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, and EMI compatibility

• Generate BOMs, GD&T drawings, and assembly instructions and oversee prototype-to-production transition in compliance with MIL-STD and ITAR requirements

• Partner with optics, electronics, firmware, and controls teams during system assembly, integration, and field testing on our range

• 2 to 8 years in mechanical or hardware engineering in defense, aerospace, or a related field

• Expert in CAD — Solid Works, Creo, or similar

• Strong FEA background — ANSYS, Solid Works Simulation

• Thermal analysis experience with CFD and heat transfer software

• Hands on mechanical prototyping and test fixture development

• Experience planning and executing vibration, shock, and environmental testing

• Solid foundation in materials science, stress analysis, and manufacturing methods

aerospace structures, defense hardware, robotics, EV thermal systems, or any program where you owned hardware from design through field validation.

You've taken a mechanical system from CAD to field test, you've broken your own hardware and fixed it faster the second time, and you think in failure modes before the first prototype is built.

Your experience is primarily simulation and analysis with limited hands‑on build and test time, or you've never supported field testing of real hardware.

• Vacuum or environmental chamber testing experience

• Familiarity with laser safety standards and optical alignment fixtures

• Background in EMI/EMC design and shielding

• Security clearance or ITAR compliance experience

BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, 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 model it for a month

• You characterize your own systems before the field does

• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment

• You debug from first…