Lead Atmospheric Instrumentation Engineer (Airborne)

Rainmaker Technology Corporation; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

401(k) with employer matching

Full health coverage (medical, dental,

Personal relocation support

Unlimited PTO

Paid parental leave

Lunch provided when in-office

EV charging at HQ

Job summary

Rainmaker seeks a Lead Instrumentation Engineer to own the development of atmospheric sensing hardware, delivering a new airborne cloud-particle imaging instrument for Rainmaker UAS. You will drive architecture, design, fabrication, calibration, flight testing, and production transition toward next season.

The role requires hands-on hardware skills across optics, electronics, mechanics, and software, with strong systems judgment and a track record of delivering complex scientific instruments.

Qualifications

• Degree in engineering or physics or equivalent instrument-development ability.
• Proven experience delivering complex sensing hardware from requirement to validated operation.
• Hands-on hardware build, calibration, and integration across optics, mechanics, electronics, and software.

Responsibilities

• Own instrument delivery from requirements to design, fabrication, integration and production transition.
• Define system requirements, interfaces, budgets, verification, schedule and risks.
• Document tradeoffs across optical performance, mass, power, thermal, and manufacturability.
• Coordinate electrical, embedded, data-acquisition, software, and field-validation work.
• Design calibration and validation campaigns and lead flight integration.
• Develop production-acceptance tests, maintenance requirements and configuration control.

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in mechanical, electrical, optical, aerospace engineering or physics

Tools

Scientific Python

Embedded systems

Data acquisition

Signal processing

Reconstruction pipelines

Job description

Rainmaker seeks a Lead Instrumentation Engineer to own the development of atmospheric sensing hardware, delivering a new airborne cloud-particle imaging instrument for Rainmaker UAS. You will drive architecture, design, fabrication, calibration, flight testing, and production transition toward next season.

The role requires hands-on hardware skills across optics, electronics, mechanics, and software, with strong systems judgment and a track record of delivering complex scientific instruments.