Hardware Engineer - Munition System

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 summary tailored to this role.
• Choose one: screening rubric, interview scorecard, or candidate summary template.