Hardware at Aurelius Santa Clara, California

Hardware Technician

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 Hardware Technician who can fabricate, machine, weld, and assemble parts that go from prototype to deployed system. You'll work hands on across the build, supporting engineers as well as field demonstrations as we scale Archimedes from prototype toward production.

What You'll Own

• Fabrication and machining of mechanical parts using mill, lathe, and CNC equipment
• Supporting field demonstrations for the warfighter
• Welding and metal fabrication, including TIG and MIG, for structural and subsystem assemblies
• 3D printing across processes including FDM, SLA, and SLS, plus post-processing
• Assembly and integration of subsystems including basic electrical wiring and harness work
• Inspection with calipers, micrometers, and gauges, and flagging tolerance drift before it becomes a problem
• Giving engineers real shop floor feedback that improves the next revision

What We're Looking For

• Hands on fabrication and machining experience, mill and lathe at minimum
• TIG or MIG welding experience on real assemblies, not just coupons
• Comfortable reading mechanical drawings and GD&T
• Comfortable with multiple 3D printing processes and post-processing
• Solid attention to dimensional accuracy and finish quality

Where You Probably Come From

Aerospace or defense fab shops, military fabrication trades, motorsports build shops, hardware startups doing real metal work.

We Want To Talk If

You've personally built things that fly, drive, or shoot. You can read a drawing, pick up a tool, and not break the part.

Not A Fit If

Your experience is design only, you've never owned a part from raw stock to finished, or you've only run CNC programs someone else wrote.

Nice To Haves

• Composites layup experience
• Sheet metal forming and brake work
• Wire harness fabrication
• Precision optical or laser system assembly experience

Education

No degree required. Trade school, military training, or self-taught all welcome. What you've built matters more than where you went to school.

How You Operate

• Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build the part tomorrow than wait for the perfect drawing
• You catch your own mistakes before they leave your bench
• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment
• Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, and engineering teams
• 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 technicians 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 and equity
• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible 18 days PTO plus 5 sick days
• Travel to field test events and range days
• Covered daily lunches and office snacks and drinks
• E-bike and 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).