Principal Hardware Engineer

Round-Peg Solutions (RPS); El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Round-Peg Solutions (RPS) seeks a Principal Hardware Reliability Engineer to set reliability standards and qualification framework across seven sites, enabling rapid product scaling in aerospace. You’ll influence design practices at founding-engineer level, working with senior leadership to shape hardware design, reviews and manufacturing across the organization.

You will drive the establishment of design criteria reviews, PDRs, and CDRs while ensuring risk is minimized and actions closed.

Qualifications

• Experience in hardware development from requirements through production.
• Ability to lead design reviews (PDRs/CDRs) and manage risks.

Responsibilities

• Define and own design processes and engineering standards.
• Establish standardized processes for capturing and reviewing requirements.
• Lead and improve design reviews and qualification activities.
• Develop hardware design guides based on best practices and heritage.
• Establish design release and configuration management across CAD, drawings, and PCBs.
• Define qualification standards and test strategies per aerospace standards.
• Review designs to identify risks and help engineers resolve issues.
• Support root-cause investigations when hardware fails during qualification.
• Be hands-on and support hardware design and development when needed.

Skills

Hardware design

Design reviews

Root-cause analysis

Engineering standards

Qualification testing

Job description

$1-Billion Aerospace Startup - Founding Engineer Level Influence & Equity

Our exclusive client are an extremely high-growth aerospace start-up valued at over $1 billion, currently seeking a Principal Hardware Reliability Engineer to establish and own the design reliability standards, processes and qualification framework across seven rapidly growing sites - offering a rare opportunity to shape how an entire aerospace organization designs, reviews and qualifies its products as it scales.

At Principal level, you’re joining early enough to have founding-engineer-level influence — working directly with senior leadership and shaping how the entire company designs, qualifies and manufactures hardware - without having to move away from engineering into traditional people management.

As a Principal Hardware Reliability Engineer, you will become one of the most influential technical contributors, helping define how hardware is designed across the entire organization.

This is not a conventional reliability position. We are looking for an experienced hardware development engineer who understands what it takes to move complex products rapidly from requirements through design, qualification and production — and can turn those lessons into better engineering practices to standardize across the company due to massive growth increasing process complexity.

As the Principal Hardware Reliability Engineer your responsibilities will include:

• Defining and owning the design processes and engineering standards
• Establishing standardized processes for capturing, reviewing, challenging and tracking customer and product requirements
• Leading and improving design reviews including design criteria reviews, PDRs and CDRs, ensuring risks and actions are identified and closed
• Developing mechanical or electrical hardware design guides based on engineering best practice, lessons learned and existing product heritage
• Establishing design release and configuration management processes across CAD, drawings, PCBAs and associated engineering documentation
• Defining qualification standards and test strategies using frameworks including MIL-STD-810, DO-160 and other relevant aerospace and defense standards
• Reviewing designs across the organization, identifying technical risks early and helping engineers resolve problems without unnecessarily slowing development
• Supporting root-cause investigations and corrective actions when hardware fails during qualification or testing
• Remaining willing to get hands-on and support hardware design and development projects when required

This Principal Hardware Reliability Engineer position offers a rare opportunity to have Principal-level influence over not simply one product, but how an entire rapidly scaling aerospace and defense organization develops hardware as a whole.

For an experienced hardware engineer who has accumulated the battle scars of real product development and wants to turn those lessons into better engineering across an entire company — without having to become a traditional people manager — this is a genuinely unique opportunity for massive

All successful applicants will be contacted within two working days.