Principle Electronics Engineer - Robotics

About the role

We're hiring a Senior Electronics Engineer for a small-team underwater robotics manufacturer in Irvine that builds ROVs used by the Navy, oil and gas operators, marine research groups, and commercial dive teams worldwide. This is a hands-on IC seat where you'll own the electronics side of new product development: schematic capture, PCB design, motor drive, battery systems, embedded firmware, sealed enclosures, and sensor integration on hardware that ships to real customers.

If you're at a big company waiting six months for a design review to close, this is the opposite. You'll ship real hardware, fast, on a small team where the person who designs the board also brings it up.

Comp: $150,000 to $220,000 base, DOE, plus performance bonus. Onsite in Irvine.

What you'll actually do

• Own PCB design in Altium (or transition from Cadence, OrCAD, PADS, Mentor, or KiCad; a 3 to 4 week ramp is fine for someone senior)
• Design and validate power electronics: DC power distribution, motor drive for underwater thrusters, battery management, charging and protection circuits
• Write and debug embedded firmware on ARM Cortex M, STM32, PSoC, or similar for real-time control
• Design sealed and pressure-rated electronics for underwater operation: conformal coating, enclosure integration, connector selection, waterproofing
• Integrate sensors, comms modules, and control systems into finished product
• Take a board from concept through bring-up, validation, and manufacturing release

What we need you to bring

• 8 or more years of hands-on electronics design experience on shipping products
• Strong PCB design chops with a professional tool (Altium preferred; adjacent tools OK with willingness to transition)
• Real power electronics or motor drive experience on production hardware
• Embedded firmware fluency at the register level, not just app-layer
• Comfort at a workbench with oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and power supply solving real problems
• Ability to work onsite in Irvine

Bonus points

• Marine, subsea, ROV, AUV, UUV, or underwater electronics background
• Sealed, ruggedized, or IP-rated hardware experience (medical implants, aerospace, defense, EV, industrial automation all count)
• Battery pack design for high-drain applications
• Active DoD clearance (some of our work supports Navy customers)
• Experience owning a product end to end from prototype through production
• Multi-hat, small-team engineering culture experience

Why this seat over your current job

• Small team, so you own the hardware end to end instead of being one specialist on a 40-person program
• Real product that ships to global customers today, not a lab prototype or PowerPoint concept
• Hands-on IC track, no forced move into people-management to progress
• Direct line to the product roadmap; if you think a design should change, you talk to the person who decides

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision, and life insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Paid time off and company-paid holidays
• Professional development budget
• Fast decision cycles and short reporting chain

How to stand out in your application

Send your resume and one paragraph on the most complex board you've owned end to end. Tell us what the board did, what was hard about it, and how you knew it was working. That's the fastest way to move to a call.

Logistics

• Onsite in Irvine, CA
• Occasional travel up to 15% for customer sites and sea trials
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds when handling test equipment and prototype hardware
• Authorized to work in the US