PCB Design Engineer

Swarm Defense; Auburn Hills (MI); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

401(k)

Job summary

Swarm Defense is seeking a PCB Design Engineer to own schematic capture and board layout for the electronics inside our UAS and ground equipment. You will guide boards from schematic through layout, bring-up, and release to production, working closely with embedded and mechanical engineers on outlines, connectors, and thermal paths.

This layout-heavy role requires fast, precise work in Altium, strong opinions on stackups, and capability to defend layouts in design reviews, with risk-managed

Qualifications

• BS in Electrical Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• 3+ years laying out PCBs with 6+ layers shipped in a product.
• Ability to place and route dense boards with tight outlines and mixed power/signal.

Responsibilities

• Own schematic capture and PCB layout for 6+ layer boards with dense component placement; Altium is primary tool.
• Define stackups, controlled-impedance routing, and via strategies for mixed sections.
• Lay out power electronics including battery management, DC-DC conversion, and motor drive with thermal considerations.
• Manage component selection, footprints, lead time, second sourcing, and obsolescence.
• Perform board bring-up and validation with embedded engineer.
• Own DFM and DFT for efficient production assembly and test.
• Design test fixtures and procedures for production boards.
• Address EMI/EMC in layout and support environmental testing.

Skills

Altium Designer

Dense board layout

Return-path management

Schematic reading

High-current design

EMI/EMC awareness

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Tools

KiCad

Cadence Allegro/OrCAD

Job description

Swarm Defense Technologies designs and builds small unmanned aircraft systems for the U.S. Department of Defense. We are headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where electrical design, firmware, machining, assembly, and flight test all happen under one roof. Our current work is focused on moving production-ready small UAS from prototype to volume delivery on compressed program timelines, and we are building the engineering and manufacturing team to do it.

Job Summary

Swarm Defense is hiring a PCB Design Engineer to own schematic capture and board layout for the electronics inside our aircraft and ground equipment: flight controller carriers, power distribution, battery management, motor drive, and communications boards. Every board is size- and weight-constrained, so the work is dense: 6+ layer stackups, fine-pitch parts, high-current power sections next to sensitive analog and RF, and impedance-controlled routing. You will take designs from schematic through layout, bring-up, and release to production.

This is a layout-heavy role, not a systems role. We expect you to be fast and precise in your layout tool, to have opinions about stackups and return paths, and to be able to defend a layout in review. You will work directly with our embedded and mechanical engineers on board outlines, connectors, and thermal paths, and with the assembly line on why a board failed test.

Key Responsibilities

• Own schematic capture and PCB layout for 6+ layer boards with dense component placement. Altium Designer is our primary tool.
• Define stackups, controlled-impedance routing, and via strategies for mixed high-current, analog, digital, and RF sections.
• Lay out power electronics including battery management, DC-DC conversion, and motor drive stages with attention to thermal and current paths.
• Manage component selection and libraries with attention to footprint accuracy, lead time, second sourcing, and obsolescence.
• Perform board bring-up and validation on prototypes with the embedded engineer.
• Own DFM and DFT: design for efficient assembly, test, and rework at production volume.
• Design test fixtures and functional test procedures for production boards.
• Address EMI/EMC in layout and support environmental and emissions testing.
• Work with fab and assembly vendors on stackup capabilities, DFM feedback, and quality issues.
• Maintain BOMs, fabrication and assembly outputs, and revision control.

Requirements

• Proficient in Altium Designer, KiCad, or Cadence (Allegro/OrCAD). Altium is our primary tool; if you come from KiCad or Cadence, you should be able to get productive in Altium quickly.
• 3+ years laying out PCBs that shipped in a product, including boards of 6 or more layers.
• Demonstrated ability to place and route dense boards: fine-pitch BGAs or QFNs, tight outlines, mixed power and signal.
• Working knowledge of controlled impedance, return-path management, decoupling, and stackup design.
• Hands-on lab skills: oscilloscope, DMM, fine-pitch soldering and rework.
• Able to read a schematic critically and catch design problems before they reach copper.
• BS in Electrical Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience.

Bonus Points

• Experience with UAS, robotics, or other size- and weight-constrained hardware.
• High-current motor drive or battery management layout experience.
• Flex or rigid-flex design.
• Experience designing to MIL-STD-461 or MIL-STD-810 environments.
• Familiarity with IPC-2221, IPC-7351, and IPC-A-610.
• Familiarity with PX4 or ArduPilot hardware ecosystems.
• Health Insurance: We cover 100% of health insurance premiums for our employees.
• 401(k): Company retirement plan with employer match.

Swarm Defense is an early-stage defense company, and the pace is set by what the mission requires. The work is hands-on: engineers build what they design, test it on real aircraft, and own the result. Timelines are short, feedback from the field is direct, and problems get solved by the people closest to them.

We reward initiative and give people ownership of their area. If you want to see your work fly within weeks rather than years, and you are comfortable operating without a large support structure around you, this is the right environment.