Senior Electrical Engineer

Our client is an early-stage defense technology startup building autonomous systems for the U.S. military, along with the rugged, portable power systems that keep them running in the field. They're already under active government contract, their first vehicle is heading to military range testing in the coming months, and it's slated for real operational use shortly after. If you join now, your hardware ships in months, not years. The team is lean, fast and deeply technical. Leadership includes a former lead powertrain engineer on one of the highest-performance production EVs ever built, and a career Navy officer who ran unmanned undersea programs. Their long-term play is Tesla- and SpaceX-style vertical integration: designing and owning the critical subsystems in-house instead of buying them. That means you won't be integrating a dev kit or tweaking a reference design. You'll be drawing the board. They're growing from roughly 15 people today toward 5x plus over the next 12 months, with the intent to promote from within as the team scales. This is a direct hire, permanent placement position for a client of AdAstra Talent Advisors. About the Role This is a Responsible Engineer role, modeled on the SpaceX approach: you own your subsystem, you make the calls, and the buck stops with you (with real peer review along the way). It's hands‑on IC work, not management. Our client is hiring three Senior EEs right now, each owning one lane: Embedded compute / high-speed digital. Design the vehicle's main compute board in‑house: a custom carrier board for an NVIDIA Jetson module, replacing the third‑party board in use today. High‑speed interfaces, signal and power integrity, bring‑up with the embedded software team. Vehicle power electronics. Own the vehicle's electrical distribution system end to end: power distribution units, battery management, high‑voltage to low‑voltage DC‑DC conversion and motor power electronics. Expeditionary power systems. Lead the electrical design, from scratch, of a portable, combat‑grade power and energy‑storage system: the battery system and the voltage conversion behind it. Fully government‑funded, with a delivery horizon roughly a year out. Responsibilities What You’ll Own Requirements, architecture and the hard tradeoffs, often with incomplete information Schematics and multilayer PCB layout Board bring‑up in the lab alongside embedded software, and debug to root cause with scopes, logic analyzers and thermal cameras Validation test plans and execution Field testing and sea trials Taking designs to production with board fabs, assembly houses and component suppliers Who They're Looking For Engineers who have taken custom electrical hardware from a blank sheet to a deployed system, ideally under tight size, weight, power and environmental limits. You can name the topology, the stackup, the part and why you chose it. You've owned the decision, not just executed it. Deep, practical expertise in at least one lane above A track record of designing your own boards, not integrating off‑the‑shelf modules Hands‑on lab bring‑up and debug experience Some experience moving a design from prototype toward production First‑principles thinking and a bias for speed What Success Looks Like In your first months, your lane has an architecture you chose and can defend, and boards are on the bench Your hardware is in the water during range testing and trials, and you're the one reading the data Your design is headed to production, with vendors you picked and a design built to be manufactured at volume As the team grows, you're a natural candidate to lead it Requirements Relevant experience with hands‑on electrical design Schematic capture and multilayer PCB layout experience Willingness to support field testing and sea trials Preferred Experience Defense, aerospace, eVTOL, EV, robotics or autonomous vehicle hardware Harsh‑environment, maritime or ruggedized electronics Safety‑critical or high‑reliability products Signal‑integrity and power‑integrity analysis Early‑stage startup experience, or a greenfield program inside a larger organization *The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed. Logistical Requirements Full time, on‑site in the Los Angeles area This is a high‑intensity season ahead of operational deployment. Expect long weeks and a team that's all in on the mission. To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by ITAR (22 CFR §120.15), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here. Base salary and title is determined by experience and seniority Ground‑floor stock options from a dedicated employee pool Health, dental and vision fully covered for employees 401(k) Relocation support as needed Lunch and dinner covered when you're at the office Laptop and whatever gear you need to do your best work Dog‑friendly office Compensation is determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case‑by‑case basis and may vary based on job‑related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, you will also be eligible for long‑term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan. Our client is an equal opportunity employer. They evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status. #J-18808-Ljbffr