Engineering Manager, Digital & Mixed-Signal Hardware

Please Note: To conform with the United States Government Space Technology Export Regulations, the applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., conditional resident, asylee or refugee (protected individuals as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

At Cesium Astro
, we are developers and pioneers of out-of-the-box communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. We take pride in our dynamic and cross-functional work environment, which allows us to learn, develop, and engage across our organization. If you are looking for hands-on, interactive, and autonomous work, Cesium Astro is the place for you. We are actively seeking passionate, collaborative, energetic, and forward-thinking individuals to join our team.

We are seeking an Engineering Manager, Digital & Mixed-Signal Hardware to lead and coordinate our high-speed digital electronics teams across multiple sites and product lines. This leadership role is critical to ensuring architectural consistency and high-quality execution across a diverse portfolio of software-defined radios, space computing platforms, and phased array control systems.

This position is a highly technical leadership role responsible for delivering well-engineered digital and mixed-signal hardware-on schedule-across all product lines. The role provides technical ownership for board- and system-level high-speed digital designs while leading team execution, staffing, and engineering process maturity in a fast-growing aerospace and defense startup environment.

In addition to people and process leadership, this role contributes hands-on technical expertise to critical designs, architecture reviews, and complex debug activities, ensuring products are scalable, manufacturable, testable, and robust at production volumes.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Maintain technical integrity and engineering excellence for high-speed digital and mixed-signal electronics development across the company.
• Establish, mature, scale, and enforce engineer-friendly digital hardware development processes, including high-speed interface design guidelines, signal integrity simulation workflows, and schematic and layout standards for dense, high-layer-count PCBs
• Lead and participate in rigorous architecture and design reviews, ensuring appropriate subject matter expert (SME) engagement across digital, RF, power, firmware, and mechanical disciplines.
• Provide system-level technical leadership for software-defined radio and computing units and phased array control architectures.
• Apply strong working knowledge of adjacent disciplines-RF electronics, power electronics, thermal/mechanical engineering, firmware/software-to ensure board- and system-level success.
• Contribute directly to board-level digital and mixed-signal designs as needed, particularly in high-risk or schedule-critical programs.
• Lead or support complex debug efforts involving high-speed interfaces, large FPGA and processor implementations, and related technical topics.
• Ensure digital hardware designs are buildable and testable at scale using DFM and DFT best practices.
• Drive disciplined handoff from engineering to manufacturing through close collaboration with manufacturing engineering, supply chain, and production test engineering.
• Ensure designs meet quality, reliability, and scalability requirements for aerospace and defense production environments.
• Lead digital architecture decisions aligned with product performance and long-term technology roadmaps.
• Partner with Supply Chain to ensure component availability, lifecycle risk mitigation, and cost awareness.
• Drive design reuse, modular architectures, and platform commonality across products to accelerate execution and reduce risk.

TEAM LEADER SHIP, STAFFING & PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build, scale, and lead a high-performing digital and mixed-signal hardware engineering team.
• Advocate for realistic schedules while holding the team accountable to delivery commitments.
• Lead hiring activities, including writing job descriptions, conducting interviews, and making hire/no-hire decisions.
• Establish clear development paths and growth opportunities for high-performing engineers.
• Address performance issues promptly and constructively.
• Actively close skill gaps through hands-on contribution, training initiatives, or targeted hiring.
• Provide one-on-one coaching, mentoring, and deep technical guidance.
• Serve as a key contributor to early-stage engineering execution planning, including collaboration with Business Development and Systems Engineering.
• Plan and manage budgets related to staffing, lab equipment, capital equipment, and design/simulation software.
• Maintain strong working relationships across Engineering, Quality, and Operations.

JOB REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering required.
• Minimum of 7-9 years…