Senior Avionics Engineer

Department: Core Engineering

Location: Alameda

Employment Type: FullTime

About Poseidon Aerospace:

Poseidon Aerospace is reimagining how the world moves goods. We build and operate full-size autonomous cargo aircraft - capable of carrying two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. From remote communities to contested logistics operations, our platforms unlock a new cost curve for air freight, making it faster, cheaper, and accessible anywhere it's needed. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine; we're building something consequential.

About the role

Avionics is the electrical and electronic hardware on our cargo aircraft, its mission systems, and the ground control station that operates it. As a Senior Avionics Engineer you will own that architecture. You will decide how the aircraft is powered, what computers and actuators it flies with, how its systems communicate, and how it behaves when hardware fails. You will carry those decisions through design, build, qualification, and flight test, and set the technical bar for the engineers around you.

Responsibilities

• Own the electrical and avionics architecture of the aircraft, mission systems, and ground control station, including redundancy and failure behavior

• Define the power system architecture, including generation, storage, distribution, and protection, and own the electrical load analysis

• Lead selection and qualification of flight computers, mission computers, actuators, sensors, radios, and datalinks

• Define the data bus and network architecture across the aircraft and ground control station

• Own interface control documents between avionics, flight software, GNC, propulsion, and airframe

• Set standards for schematics, wire harness design, grounding, bonding, and shielding

• Plan and lead EMI/EMC and environmental qualification testing

• Define the flight test instrumentation architecture with the flight test team

• Lead root cause analysis of avionics hardware failures in ground and flight test, including travel to our flight test site

• Support system safety assessments and certification evidence for avionics hardware

• Manage avionics suppliers and outside test labs

• Lead design reviews and mentor other avionics engineers

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience

• 5+ years designing and integrating avionics or electrical systems on aircraft, spacecraft, or comparable vehicles

• Owned the electrical or avionics architecture of a vehicle or major subsystem from concept through test

• Designed power distribution systems, including circuit protection and load analysis

• Took avionics hardware through integration and ground or flight test on a real vehicle

• Experience with redundancy design and failure mode analysis for safety-critical hardware

• Led design reviews and set technical direction for other engineers

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with uncrewed aircraft, including command and control datalinks and ground control station hardware

• Experience integrating mission systems or payloads

• Experience with fly-by-wire actuation systems

• Experience qualifying hardware to DO-160 or developing hardware under DO-254

• Familiarity with ARP4754A and ARP4761 system safety processes

• Familiarity with MIL-STD-704, MIL-STD-461, and AS50881

• Experience with flight test instrumentation and data acquisition systems

• Private pilot certificate or Part 107 certificate

Why this role

Avionics connects every system on the aircraft: power, propulsion, flight controls, mission systems, and the link to the ground. You will make the architecture decisions for all of it, at a stage where those decisions are still yours to make. You will see your design fly on an aircraft that carries two tons.

What you get from us

• Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity

• Relocation support if applicable

• Employee Health Benefit Plans

• 6% Retirement matching

• Flexible PTO

• Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices

• AI tools and subscriptions