Field-Ready Payload Integration Engineer

Powerus; Rock Hill (SC); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Powerus is seeking an experienced Payload Integration Engineer to lead end-to-end integration of sensors and subsystems onto aircraft platforms. You will define mechanical and electrical interfaces, manage mass/power/data budgets, and ensure integration readiness for flight tests with vendors and internal teams.

This on-site role requires the ability to work with cross-functional groups and travel for customer evaluations.

Qualifications

• Must be located in the United States, within commuting distance of Rock Hill, SC, and able to work on-site.
• Degree in mechanical, electrical, or aerospace engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience integrating sensors, payloads, or subsystems onto a vehicle or other physically constrained platform, taking them from interface definition through working hardware.
• Comfort working across the mechanical and electrical boundary - define a mount and a load path as readily as a power and data interface.
• Experience with the interfaces payloads actually use, such as Ethernet, serial, CAN, USB, PPS or other timing signals, and common video and sensor data formats.
• Experience authoring or working to interface control documents, and holding mass, power, or data budgets across a changing configuration.
• Willingness to travel and to operate in the field, including standing a payload up under time pressure in front of a customer.
• U.S. Person status required (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)); this role involves access to ITAR- and EAR-controlled technical data.

Responsibilities

• Define and document mechanical interfaces for payloads - mounting, envelope, access, alignment and boresight, and the structural load path into the airframe.
• Define electrical interfaces including power rails and sequencing, grounding and shielding, connector and harness selection, and protection against payload faults propagating into the aircraft.
• Own mass and center-of-gravity budgets across payload configurations, and work with GNC and flight test on the limits each configuration imposes.
• Own power and data budgets - draw and duty cycle against available generation and storage, bandwidth and latency against the onboard bus and the downlink.
• Author and negotiate interface control documents with third-party payload vendors and in-house teams, and maintain them as configurations change.

Skills

Payload integration

Interface definition

Mass budgeting

Power budgeting

Data budgeting

Education

Mechanical, Electrical or Aerospace Eng

Tools

Ethernet

CAN bus

USB

Timing signals

Job description

Powerus is seeking an experienced Payload Integration Engineer to lead end-to-end integration of sensors and subsystems onto aircraft platforms. You will define mechanical and electrical interfaces, manage mass/power/data budgets, and ensure integration readiness for flight tests with vendors and internal teams.

This on-site role requires the ability to work with cross-functional groups and travel for customer evaluations.