Electrical Engineer

Apera; California (MO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Apera is seeking an Electrical Engineer – Flight Computer Hardware to own safety-critical embedded electronics from initial PCBA design through bring-up, qualification, manufacturing, and flight-ready hardware. You’ll join a very small electrical engineering team, delivering hardware you personally designed that flies on aircraft, with high ownership and fast iteration in a hands-on role.

This role emphasizes bench work: board debugging, schematic changes, re-spins, test automation, and

Qualifications

• Experience owning design, bring-up and debugging of multiple PCBs.
• Strong digital, mixed-signal, power, and embedded electronics fundamentals.
• Hands-on with test equipment and board rework.
• Experience Python or similar for test automation.

Responsibilities

• Design, bring up, test, and debug complex PCBAs.
• Own electrical hardware from initial design through flight-ready implementation.
• Diagnose root causes across power, processors, memory, communications, analog I/O, sensors, and manufacturing.
• Make schematic, component, layout, and BOM changes for subsequent board spins.
• Build automated bench tests, test fixtures, and fault-injection tools.
• Characterize hardware across voltage, load, temperature, timing, and failure conditions.
• Work closely with embedded software, controls, safety, and manufacturing engineers.
• Maintain clear documentation around design decisions, anomalies, testing, and configuration history.

Skills

PCB design

Digital logic

Analog electronics

Python

Debugging

Schematic editing

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Programmable power supplies

Electronic loads

Board rework

Job description

Hiring an Electrical Engineer – Flight Computer Hardware to take direct ownership of safety-critical embedded electronics from initial PCBA design through bring-up, qualification, manufacturing, and flight-ready hardware.

You’ll join a very small electrical engineering team, which means significant technical ownership, fast iteration, and the opportunity to see hardware you personally designed make its way onto an aircraft.

This is not a systems engineering or oversight position. You’ll be on the bench designing boards, debugging failures, making schematic changes, re-spinning hardware, and solving difficult electrical problems.

What You’ll Do

• Design, bring up, test, and debug complex PCBAs.
• Own electrical hardware from initial design through flight-ready implementation.
• Diagnose root causes across power, processors, memory, communications, analog I/O, sensors, and manufacturing.
• Make schematic, component, layout, and BOM changes for subsequent board spins.
• Build automated bench tests, test fixtures, and fault-injection tools.
• Characterize hardware across voltage, load, temperature, timing, and failure conditions.
• Work closely with embedded software, controls, safety, and manufacturing engineers.
• Maintain clear documentation around design decisions, anomalies, testing, and configuration history.
• Use modern engineering and AI tools to accelerate analysis, testing, documentation, and iteration.

What We’re Looking For

• Approximately 3–8 years of electrical engineering experience developing complex electronic hardware.
• Personally owned the design, bring-up, and debugging of multiple PCBAs.
• Strong digital, mixed-signal, power, and embedded electronics fundamentals.
• Hands‑on experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, programmable power supplies, electronic loads, and board rework.
• Ability to modify schematics and competently review PCB layouts.
• Experience using Python or similar languages for test automation.
• Strong engineering judgment and the ability to operate with significant autonomy.

This is an opportunity for an electrical engineer who wants unusually high ownership over real aircraft hardware.

You won’t be responsible for one small piece of a mature program. You’ll help define the electronics architecture, build the hardware, break it, debug it, improve it, and ultimately see it fly.