Founding Propulsion Integration Engineer

Vight; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental included

Job summary

Vight is developing private-use eVTOLs and a high-power propulsion platform. You will own the HV electrical system from early prototypes to the first two-seat aircraft, including motors, inverters, batteries, power distribution, and thermal management.

You will integrate and test propulsion systems on subscale prototypes while shaping 800 V architecture and vendor selection to derisk the full-scale system. You will work with cross-functional teams to define power-up sequences, safety logic, and

Qualifications

• Experience with HV propulsion components in aircraft or UAVs.
• Hands-on hardware ownership of high-power subsystems.
• Ability to reason across subscale and full-scale architectures.

Responsibilities

• Define propulsion architecture from subscale to full scale (800 V).
• Select, integrate, test motors, ESCs, and battery packs for subscale vehicles.
• Own thermal management across all flight phases, especially hover.
• Design bench and HIL test setups for propulsion systems.
• Collaborate with GNC on motor dynamics and power transients.
• Define power-up sequences, safe states, and logging for testability.

Skills

HV electronics

Motor drives

Inverters

Power distribution

Thermal management

System architecture

Test & debugging

GNC integration

Tools

KiCad

Altium

Job description

About Vight

Vight is building private use eVTOLs that make point to point flight as normal as driving, starting with rural property owners and flight clubs. We are a small founding team shipping fast in the real world with subscale VTOLs and a clear path to two seat, FAA MOSAIC aircraft and beyond.

About Vight

Vight is building private use eVTOLs that make point to point flight as normal as driving, starting with rural property owners and flight clubs. We are a small founding team shipping fast in the real world with subscale VTOLs and a clear path to two seat, FAA MOSAIC aircraft and beyond.

Backed by leading investors and operators, our team and advisors include engineering leaders behind world-class hardware at Airbus Vahana, Kittyhawk, SpaceX and Rivian.

We want the hard problems you solve here with other exceptional engineers to be your life's work.

Role

You will own the HV electrical system from early subscale prototypes through to our first two seat aircraft: motors, inverters, batteries, power distribution and thermal management.

You will be integrating and testing propulsion systems on subscale prototypes while simultaneously defining the full scale 800 V architecture, evaluating vendors and closing build vs buy decisions. The choices you make at subscale will drive the derisking of the full scale propulsion system.

We are currently down-selecting our configuration through conceptual design and initial subscale flight testing. You will help shape these critical architecture decisions through PDR and beyond.

What You Will Do

• Define the propulsion architecture from subscale through full scale: 800 V bus topology, pack configuration, motor and inverter selection, contactor and fusing strategy, isolation and fault handling.
• Select, integrate and test COTS motors, ESCs and battery packs for subscale vehicles while evaluating and down-selecting full scale components. Know what is available off the shelf, what requires custom design and where the market gaps are.
• Own thermal management across all flight phases, especially hover where low airflow and sustained high power create the hardest thermal case.
• Design and run bench and HIL test setups that let you and GNC push the propulsion system hard off-aircraft, then carry those scenarios into flight test.
• Work with GNC on motor dynamics, throttle response and power transients, with avionics on controls, logging and integration, and with structures on mounts, routing, access and cooling.
• Define power-up sequences, safe states, emergency cut logic, logging and instrumentation so the system is testable and debuggable on the bench and in the air.

You Might Be A Fit If You

• Have hands-on experience with high voltage power electronics at 400 V or above: motor drives, inverters, battery packs or power distribution on an eVTOL, electric aircraft, high power UAV or EV powertrain.
• Have personally owned high-power hardware at roughly 100 kW class or above, or an equivalent propulsion / traction subsystem whose scale clearly transfers.
• Can hold subscale and full scale problems simultaneously and reason about how choices at one scale affect the other.
• Are comfortable at three levels at once: system architecture, redundancy and fault handling; subsystem inverter limits, pack behavior and thermal; and details like crimps, connector keying, ground loops and EMI.
• Can get to an 80 percent answer in 10 minutes with rough models and know when a safety critical or architecture-setting problem deserves a slower, deeper pass.
• Know the COTS landscape for electric propulsion components, or can quickly learn it, and can assess vendor claims against real requirements.

Nice To Have

• Electric propulsion experience on aircraft, eVTOLs or high power UAVs specifically.
• Experience integrating SiC or GaN power electronics, traction inverters, motor drives, or similar high-power propulsion systems and seeing the results in test or operation.
• Experience with battery pack design, BMS integration or cell-level characterization.
• Public builder artifacts such as technical blogs, GitHub, conference talks, published test rigs, or patents tied to real HV hardware.
• Familiarity with aviation standards around propulsion and power: ASTM F2840 for EPU, ASTM F3338 for EPS, or DO-160 for EMC.
• Comfort with scripting tests and analysis in Python and with ECAD tools such as KiCad or Altium; CAD is a plus.

What We Offer

• You will own the propulsion system from subscale through full scale architecture, with the opportunity to grow and lead the propulsion team.
• Hands-on, fast-cycle hardware development with subscale VTOLs in the air and minimal management overhead.
• The opportunity to do career-defining work on the ground floor of a generational change to personal aviation and mobility, helping shape the culture in the process.
• Medical and dental included.