Lead, Forward Deployed Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco

Compensation: $160K – $210K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

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 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’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role and Your Impact:

We need a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead demonstrations, field tests, and field integration on Archimedes. You're a generalist engineer who can work across mechanical, electrical, and software when the system is in front of a customer or downrange. You'll set it up, you'll fix it when it breaks, and you'll be the credible technical face of Aurelius when an operator is standing next to you. Between deployments you're back at the lab testing, breaking things on purpose, and bringing what you learned in the field back into the build.

What You'll Own:

• System setup, integration, and operation at demonstrations, field tests, and customer sites

• Field troubleshooting and repair across mechanical, electrical, and software subsystems

• Pre-deployment system checkout and packing, post-deployment teardown and debrief

• Real-time integration work on novel hardware and software in non-lab conditions

• Customer-facing technical interaction during demos, tests, and pilots

• Capturing field observations, failure modes, and operator feedback and feeding them back to engineering

• In-lab testing, characterization, and rig work between deployments

What We're Looking For:

• 3 to 8+ years of hands-on engineering or technician experience on real hardware, ideally on systems that left the lab

• Generalist depth across at least two of: mechanical, electrical, embedded software, integration

• Hands-on troubleshooting skills with scope, multimeter, basic shop tools, and command line

• Comfortable presenting and operating in front of customers, including military operators

• Travel-ready and physically able to support field deployments including range conditions and equipment handling

Where you probably come from: Field service or test engineering at defense or aerospace companies, integration roles at hardware startups, military maintenance or test trades, motorsports or robotics field teams, or any program where you owned a system at the test site.

We want to talk if: You've stood next to a piece of hardware in front of a customer when something failed and brought it back online. You're comfortable being the only engineer on site. You don't lose your composure when the system does.

Not a fit if: Your experience is lab-only with no field exposure, you've never owned a customer-facing demo, or you need a full team to debug a problem.

Nice to Haves:

• Military service or close exposure to military operating environments

• Counter-UAS, directed energy, or air defense experience

• ROS2 or robotics field integration experience

• Active TS/SCI clearance or eligibility

• Welding, machining, or fabrication shop skills

Education:

AA, BS, MS, or PhD. No specific degree required. Trade school, military training, or engineering degree all welcome. What you've fielded matters more than where you went to school.

How You Operate:

• Extreme bias for action.

• Calm under pressure. The customer doesn't see the panic; they see the fix

• You characterize your own systems before the field does

• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment

• Clear communicator across operators, engineers, and customers

• Self directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

Why Join Aurelius Systems?

• Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.

• Career velocity is real. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact.

• Work on a problem that actually matters. Small cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer — infinite magazine, near zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck.

• Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.

How We Work:

Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up — nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary + equity

• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days

• Travel to field test events and range days

• Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks

• E-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)

• Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Export Control Notice:

This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).