Electrical Engineer Intern

WindBorne Systems; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 38,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

WindBorne Systems in Redwood City, CA is seeking an Embedded Electrical Engineer to design, bring up, and debug flight and ground hardware for high-performance weather balloons. The role blends PCB design in the morning with firmware debugging and parts sourcing in the evening, aiming for rapid, reliable hardware turnarounds.

You will create systems that survive -70°C to +40°C, selecting components carefully for weight and reliability.

Qualifications

• Strong fundamentals in embedded circuit and system design.
• Hands-on experience troubleshooting circuit boards and electronic assemblies.
• Proficiency with reading schematics and datasheets.
• Familiarity with embedded firmware development (C/C++).
• Familiarity with common communication protocols (SPI, I2C, UART).
• Experience with PCB layout and design tools (Altium).
• Comfort with lab equipment including oscilloscopes, multimeters, and logic analyzers.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and test PCBs for critical new flight and ground systems.
• Develop firmware for initial bringup of new boards and custom testing of existing boards.
• Troubleshoot and resolve (only the most pressing) issues on existing hardware.
• Conduct comprehensive bench and environmental testing to validate electrical systems under extreme conditions.
• Work closely with mechanical engineers to ensure proper integration on a vehicle with about as many structural PCBs as custom 3D parts.
• Support flight operations with troubleshooting of deployed hardware via realtime telemetry.
• Coordinate PCBA manufacturing for both R&D and production.

Skills

Embedded circuit design

Circuit board troubleshooting

Schematic and datasheet reading

Embedded firmware development (C/C++)

SPI I2C UART protocols

PCB layout tools (Altium)

Lab equipment operation

Interest in physics

Out-of-the-box problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

Altium

Job description

WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather models with a unique proprietary data source: a global constellation of next-generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. We design, manufacture, and operate our own balloons, using the data they collect to generate otherwise unattainable weather intelligence.

Our mission is to eliminate weather uncertainty, and in the process help humanity adapt to climate change, be that predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. We are building a future in which the planet is instrumented by thousands of our microballoons, eliminating gaps in our understanding of the planet and giving people and businesses the information they need to make critical decisions. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top investors including Khosla Ventures.

WindBorne is looking for an Embedded Electrical Engineer to run hardware design, initial bringup, hardware debug, and manufacturing support of a number of key elements of our flight hardware and ground support systems. We're seeking someone who can jump between PCB design in the morning, debugging firmware in the afternoon, and searching DigiKey at night; someone who finds satisfaction in making things work in theory, in practice, and at scale, and in running through those stages as quickly as PCBA turnaround times permit.

This role is for someone who would be unfulfilled designing predictable power supplies or standard microcontroller boards. Instead, you’ll be creating systems that can reliably operate from -70°C to +40°C using components that are entirely unrated for such a task, while counting every gram and milliwatt.

We aren't looking for someone who wants to spend weeks designing the theoretically perfect circuit. Rather, we need someone who can quickly ship a design that doesn’t appear to be broken, and who genuinely enjoys spending a day at the bench playing electrical whac-a-mole when something inevitably is. The ideal candidate will understand and contribute to the big picture to ensure effort is directed only where it is most useful, while spending most of the day on the messy details of building the world’s largest balloon constellation.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and test PCBs for critical new flight and ground systems

• Develop firmware for initial bringup of new boards and custom testing of existing boards

• Troubleshoot and resolve (only the most pressing) issues on existing hardware

• Conduct comprehensive bench and environmental testing to validate electrical systems under extreme conditions

• Work closely with mechanical engineers to ensure proper integration on a vehicle with about as many structural PCBs as custom 3D parts

• Support flight operations with troubleshooting of deployed hardware via realtime telemetry

• Coordinate PCBA manufacturing for both R&D and production

Skills and Qualifications

Required

• Strong fundamentals in embedded circuit and system design

• Hands-on experience troubleshooting circuit boards and electronic assemblies

• Proficiency with reading schematics and datasheets

• Familiarity with embedded firmware development (C/C++)

• Familiarity with common communication protocols (SPI, I2C, UART)

• Experience with PCB layout and design tools (we use Altium)

• Comfort with lab equipment including oscilloscopes, multimeters, and logic analyzers

• Interest in the underlying physics

• Being the type of person who enjoys applying increasingly cursed out of the box solutions in order to reduce part count and complexity

Nice to have

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical Engineering or related field

• Interest in RF system development and antenna design

• Deep knowledge of power management circuit design

• Ability to solder 0402 components by hand without wanting to cry

Salary

• $33/hr

Location

1600 Bridge Pwky, Redwood City, CA. In person required.

WindBorne Systems is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. To request an accommodation in the application process, email [e-mail].