Principal Avionics & Power Systems Engineer

COMFORT SYSTEMS; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 131,300 - 237,350; Full time

Job summary

Leidos Defense seeks a Principal Electrical Engineer to lead hardware architectures for missiles, UAVs, and launch platforms. You will drive avionics design, execute complex co-designs, and guide IPTs through hardware lifecycles with rigorous MIL-STD compliance.

You'll translate customer concepts into flight-worthy electronics, manage high-speed interfaces, and mentor engineering teams while partnering with systems engineering and verification groups to ensure mission readiness.

Qualifications

• Active Top-Secret clearance required for the role.
• Master’s degree with 10+ years or bachelor’s with 12+ years hardware experience.
• Proven background as a hardware architect or technical lead.
• Experience with SoC/FPGA, RTOS, and high-frequency interfaces.
• Knowledge of defense standards (MIL-STD-461/704/1472/IPC).
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams within Agile.
• U.S. Citizenship required and ability to travel 10-20%.

Responsibilities

• Architect, lead, and deliver avionics, LRUs for missiles/UAVs/launch platforms.
• Support complex system co-designs with SoC/FPGA and network architectures.
• Oversee PDN definitions, multi-rail regulation, rigid-flex PCBA layouts.
• Direct IPTs for electronics, cabling, grounding; interface with subcontractors.
• Translate standards into hardware requirements; support EVM and CapEx proposals.
• Act as test conductor for system-level test plans and HWIL readiness.

Skills

Active Top-Secret Clearance

Hardware architecture

SoC/FPGA systems

RTOS environments

High-frequency interfaces

IPT leadership

Education

Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Xilinx Zynq SoCs

Altera FPGAs

MicroBlaze

Cameo/MagicDraw

IBM DOORS

Job description

Leidos Defense seeks a Principal Electrical Engineer to lead hardware architectures for missiles, UAVs, and launch platforms. You will drive avionics design, execute complex co-designs, and guide IPTs through hardware lifecycles with rigorous MIL-STD compliance.

You'll translate customer concepts into flight-worthy electronics, manage high-speed interfaces, and mentor engineering teams while partnering with systems engineering and verification groups to ensure mission readiness.