Hardware Engineer

Powerus; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 85,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Powerus is hiring a Hardware Engineer to develop electronic hardware for unmanned platforms, from concept through production. You will design circuits, bring boards up, and support manufacturing transitions on a broad scope including power, avionics, sensing, and interconnect.

The role is hands-on with real aircraft, requiring on-site work in Charlotte, NC, with a focus on hardware development and cross-functional collaboration across engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience designing or bringing up electronic hardware that became a physical product.
• Comfort with lab instrumentation and structured debugging of hardware you did not design.

Responsibilities

• Develop electronic hardware from requirements through schematic, layout support, and release.
• Bring up new boards, characterize behavior, and debug across analog, digital, and power domains.
• Integrate hardware into the vehicle and resolve system-level problems.
• Define and verify interfaces between boards, harnesses, sensors, and subsystems.
• Run design reviews and drive findings to closure with hardware, mechanical, and software engineers.
• Select components against electrical requirements, NDAA and Blue UAS sourcing constraints.
• Build test setups and write procedures for measurable, repeatable performance.
• Support environmental, vibration, and EMC testing and address issues surfaced.
• Produce and maintain schematics, drawings, BOMs, and revision-controlled docs.
• Partner with manufacturing on buildability, first article, yield, and process feedback.

Skills

Circuit design

Schematic capture

PCB bring-up

Hardware testing

System integration

Lab instrumentation

Debugging

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Altium Designer

Cadence Allegro

KiCad

Job description

Powerus is building a next-generation American autonomous systems platform designed to move, protect, and sustain critical assets in high-consequence environments. The company combines advanced autonomy, manufacturing capability, operational expertise, and strategic acquisitions to support defense, national security, critical infrastructure, and commercial operations globally.

Mission

Our mission is to deliver resilient autonomous technologies that strengthen national security, improve operational safety, and expand the capabilities of organizations operating in complex environments.

Why Join Powerus

Hardware is where the arguments get settled. Software can be patched over the air; a board that browns out under load has to be found, understood, and rebuilt. On an unmanned platform, the hardware is also the part that has to survive vibration, temperature, altitude, and a production line that will build it long after the person who designed it moved on.

Powerus is scaling that hardware across two sites. This role is for someone who wants the whole arc - concept, board, bring-up, aircraft, production - rather than a single station on it.

About the Role

Powerus is hiring a Hardware Engineer to develop electronic hardware for our unmanned platforms, from concept through production. You will design and review circuits, take boards through bring-up and characterization, integrate them into the vehicle, and support the transition into manufacturing. The scope is deliberately broad - power, avionics, sensing, and interconnect all sit inside it - and the work is hands-on with real aircraft, not confined to a simulation environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop electronic hardware from requirements through schematic, layout support, and release
• Bring up new boards, characterize behavior, and debug across the analog, digital, and power domains
• Integrate hardware into the vehicle and resolve the problems that only appear at the system level
• Define and verify interfaces between boards, harnesses, sensors, and subsystems
• Run design reviews and drive findings to closure with hardware, mechanical, and software engineers
• Select components against electrical requirements, availability, and NDAA and Blue UAS sourcing constraints
• Build test setups and write procedures that make performance measurable and repeatable
• Support environmental, vibration, and EMC testing and close the issues those campaigns surface
• Produce and maintain schematics, drawings, BOMs, and revision-controlled documentation
• Partner with manufacturing on buildability, first article, yield, and process feedback

Qualifications

• Must be located in the United States, within commuting distance of Charlotte, NC, and able to work on-site
• Degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Experience designing or bringing up electronic hardware that became a physical product
• Comfort with lab instrumentation and structured debugging of hardware you did not design
• Ability to work across board-level and system-level problems in the same week
• 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

Preferred Skills

• Experience with UAV, aerospace, robotics, automotive, or other embedded hardware products
• Familiarity with an ECAD tool such as Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, or KiCad
• Exposure to embedded interfaces such as I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, or Ethernet
• Experience with power distribution, battery systems, or motor drive hardware
• Background in environmental qualification, vibration, or EMC testing
• Experience supporting a hardware design through production ramp

Pay range and compensation package

What We Look For: We are looking for people who like hardware for its own sake - who have taken something apart to find out why it failed, and who would rather spend an afternoon on the bench than an afternoon speculating in a meeting. Comfort with ambiguity matters; a lot of the work here is figuring out what the actual problem is before solving it.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Powerus is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and mission-driven workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.