Hardware Engineer - Munition System

Location: San Francisco, California, United States, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Workplace: on_site

Description

Experience Level: Mid‑Senior
Experience Required: 5 Years
Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Job Function: Engineering
Industry: Defense & Space

Recruiter Note

Candidate must be comfortable completing an initial 1‑month onsite training period in Kearneysville, WV, after which they will relocate back to work from San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Washington, DC.

About the Project

Our client is developing a small, safety‑critical kinetic munition deployed via an FPV‑class airframe. At the core of the system is an Electro‑Mechanical Safe and Arm Device (EMSAD) responsible for compute, safety, and arming logic.
This role owns the entire electronics stack — from schematic architecture through PCB layout, bring‑up, validation, and qualification.

What You’ll Do

• EMSAD Architecture — Architect and design the main EMSAD board and all auxiliary boards.
• Schematic & PCB Design — Lead schematic capture and multilayer PCB layout for mixed‑signal, low‑power, and RF‑adjacent systems.
• Safety Architecture — Define hardware safety architecture with redundant interlocks and fail‑safe defaults.
• Bring‑Up & Validation — Build bring‑up benches, execute first‑article validation, and document results.
• Firmware Collaboration — Work closely with firmware engineers on drivers, timing, and hardware‑software integration.
• Environmental Qualification — Drive thermal, vibration, EMC, ESD, and drop‑test qualification.
• Manufacturing Readiness — Own BOM management, DFM/DFT, and factory tester development.
• Lab Debugging — Perform hands‑on debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DMMs, and soldering tools.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional electronics design experience
• Strong knowledge of low‑power MCUs, mixed‑signal systems, power supplies, sensors, and RF‑adjacent layout
• Expertise with PCB layout tools such as Altium, KiCad, or Cadence
• Hands‑on lab debugging experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DMMs, and soldering tools
• Experience debugging complex hardware issues including EMC, brown‑out, and edge‑case failures
• Strong written and verbal English communication

Nice to Have

• Safety‑critical hardware or fail‑safe design experience
• Experience with S&A or fuzing electronics
• Familiarity with MIL‑STD‑810 / MIL‑STD‑461 testing
• FPV or small‑UAV electronics experience
• DFT experience for high‑mix, low‑volume manufacturing

How We Work

A small, fast‑moving engineering team with weekly hardware iterations and constant prototyping. Engineers are expected to:

• Drive electrical decisions
• Document design choices clearly
• Stand behind their work during qualification and field validation

If you want, I can also generate a screening rubric, technical interview scorecard, or a candidate submittal summarytailored to this role.
Choose one: screening rubric, interview scorecard, or candidate summary template.