Electrical Engineer; PCB Design

WORK LOCATION:

San Luis Obispo, CA

Exempt

The anticipated salary range for this role is $86,000 to $125,000 annually. This range reflects a good faith estimate based on the targeted level for the role and typical compensation benchmarks across U.S. locations. Actual compensation may vary depending on the selected candidate’s qualifications, experience, geographical location, and internal alignment.

The PCB Design Engineer plays a critical role in the design, development, and integration of embedded electrical systems for uncrewed aircraft platforms. This role is responsible for architecting and validating flight‑critical circuits, power systems, avionics interfaces, and embedded electronics that operate reliably in demanding environments. The PCB Design Engineer serves as a domain expert within the hardware team – PCB layout and design for avionics and embedded systems, schematic capture, PCB stack‑up, signal integrity, and manufacturability for rugged aerospace environments and ensuring seamless integration with mechanical, software, and GNC functions.

This position is ideal for an engineer experienced in UAS or aerospace electronics who thrives in a hands‑on, fast‑paced environment and enjoys solving complex technical challenges involving sensors, radios, power regulation, embedded compute, and flight‑critical communication buses.

The following job functions are a basic requirement but are not limited to and may be assigned other duties.

• Design and develop multi‑layer PCBs for avionics, power regulation, and sensor interfaces.
• Perform schematic capture and PCB layout using Altium (or equivalent), ensuring compliance with aerospace standards.
• Optimize signal integrity, impedance control, and thermal management in PCB designs.
• Collaborate with electrical engineers to translate system requirements into PCB‑level implementations.
• Support DFM/DFT reviews and coordinate with manufacturing for board builds.
• Conduct design reviews (CoDR, PDR, CDR) focused on PCB aspects.
• Assist in prototype bring‑up and troubleshooting at the board level.
• Own subsystem requirements, architecture, component selection, schematic creation, and design documentation.
• Develop and review PCB designs, ensuring manufacturability, signal integrity, and environmental robustness.
• Integrate sensors, radios, autopilots, datalinks, GPS modules, payload interfaces, and embedded compute platforms (e.g., Jetson, STM
  32, PIC, etc.).
• Support environmental, vibration, thermal, and electrical testing, including benchtop validation, HIL/SIL testing, and flight test preparation.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally across GNC, Software, Mechanical, Autonomy, Production, and Test teams to ensure seamless integration.
• Participate in design reviews (CoDR, PDR, CDR), risk assessments, and reliability evaluations.
• Diagnose and resolve complex field issues related to avionics, power, sensors, and embedded electronics.

The following are a non‑exhaustive list of qualifications for the position:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field required.
• 3–5 years of PCB design experience (Altium preferred) for aerospace, defense or UAS applications.
• Strong knowledge of high‑speed digital design, power distribution, and mixed‑signal PCB layouts.
• Familiarity with IPC standards, controlled impedance routing, and stack‑up design.
• Experience with design rule checks (DRC) and signal integrity analysis tools.
• Demonstrated ownership of subsystem‑level development (architecture → test → integration → release).
• Experience supporting flight test, field troubleshooting, or operational unmanned systems.
• High‑speed routing, differential pairs, controlled impedance.
• Thermal and mechanical considerations for ruggedized boards.
• Understanding of power integrity and decoupling strategies.
• Ability to interpret system schematics and translate into PCB layouts.
• Understanding of UAS electrical architectures, autopilot interfaces, and avionics integration.
• Experience with oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, and environmental test setups.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills with the…