Principal Electrical Engineer

Trident Systems; Fairfax (VA); On-site; USD 114,000 - 211,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) with company match

Tuition reimbursement

Paid time off

Holidays

Annual discretionary bonus

Job summary

Trident Systems in Fairfax, VA, is seeking a Principal Electrical Engineer to architect and guide advanced embedded hardware for space and defense. The role spans from requirements through design, integration, and delivery, ensuring reliability and radiation-mitigation.

You will lead a senior team, collaborate with program leadership and customers, shape the technology roadmap, and support business development.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related technical field.
• 9+ years of experience with a Bachelor's or 7+ years with a Master's degree.
• Experience with mixed-signal PCA development and HDI PCBs.

Responsibilities

• Manage engineering discipline personnel.
• Subject matter expert for embedded hardware engineering discipline.
• Lead embedded hardware development process across requirements, design, and testing.
• Conduct peer reviews of design work and documentation.
• Provide technical guidance to discipline teams, PMO, EGD and VP.
• Support project execution and business development efforts.
• Represent Trident Systems Engineering with customers and vendors as SME.

Skills

Mixed-signal PCB design

HDI PCBs

High-speed components

FPGA development

Verilog/VHDL

PCI/PCIe/VPX standards

Logic analyzers

Oscilloscopes

Emulators

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Master's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Logic analyzers

Scopes

Emulators

Job description

Position Title: Principal Electrical Engineer
Requisition ID: 1844
Position Location: Fairfax, VA / Concord, NH
Position Reports To: Senior Manager, Electrical Engineering
Supervises Others: No

At Trident Systems Space Electronic Systems (SES) division, we believe in the power of using strong engineering principles to drive innovation and solve complex problems. We foster a culture of rigorous engineering and continuous improvement, leveraging the full knowledge of our organization through collaborative product development processes that include design and peer reviews. We combine our expertise in space electronics with right-sized development processes to create innovative, high-performance space-based electronic systems that meet our customers' evolving needs.

We are a mission partner supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, and Civil space customers. We develop complex, radiation effects mitigated, designs that balance competing requirements in modern space programs, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to achieve more in space.

Position Summary

The Principal Electrical Engineer serves as a senior technical leader within Trident Systems' Space Electronic Systems (SES) division, responsible for architecting, developing, and guiding advanced embedded hardware solutions for space and defense applications. This role provides deep subject matter expertise across the full hardware development lifecycle-from requirements definition through design, integration, test, and delivery-while ensuring designs meet stringent performance, reliability, and radiation-mitigation requirements. The Principal Hardware Engineer partners closely with cross-functional engineering teams, program leadership, and customers to solve complex technical challenges, support program execution and business development efforts, and shape the long-term technology roadmap for the organization.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage engineering discipline personnel
• Subject matter expert for embedded hardware engineering discipline
• Lead embedded hardware development process: requirements specification, characterization, simulation, high-speed digital design, signal processing, schematic capture, PCB layout and routing, PCA testing, and system integration
• Conduct peer reviews of design work and documentation
• Provide technical guidance to discipline team, other engineering teams, PMO, EGD and VP
• Support project execution as needed based on severity of resource demand and challenge of design
• Cost Account Management
• Support business development efforts
• Represent Trident Systems Engineering with customer and vendor interface as a subject matter expert
• Support ES technology roadmap by identifying goals for department and plans for execution
• Ability to support travel or off-site work, as needed.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or related technical degree
• 9+ years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree OR 7+ years with a Master's degree
• Experience with mixed-signal PCA development, utilizing High Density Interconnect (HDI) PCBs and high speed (> 1 GHz) components/circuits
• Experience with FPGA and microprocessor development, including hardware descriptor languages (i.e. Verilog, VHDL)
• Experience with hardware integration, test, and debug tools such as logic analyzers, scopes, emulators
• Demonstrated experience implementing PCI, PCIe, cPCI, VME, or VPX standards (VITA 46, VITA 65)

Pay Information

Full-Time Salary Range: $114,000 - $211,000
Please Note: Actual compensation offered will be determined based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, education, certifications, internal equity, business considerations, and geographic location where applicable.

Benefits

Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits including but not limited to:

• Health benefits
  • Medical
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • Basic life with AD&D
  • Short-term disability
  • Long term disability
  • Ancillary (Voluntary life with AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital, and pet)
  • Spending accounts (HSA, FSA, and DCFSA)
• Paid time off
• Holidays
• 401(k) (including company match)
• Tuition reimbursement
• Leaves (Parental, maternity, and military)
• Annual discretionary bonus (for eligible roles)

Trident Systems reserves the right to change or assign other duties to this position.

Trident Systems is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact [e-mail].

Pay Transparency: The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)