Process Controls Engineer, Sensing & DAQ

Hadrian Automation; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 268,000 - 321,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, and life_ins

401k

Relocation support

Flexible vacation

Equity

Job summary

Hadrian is seeking a senior engineer to lead the Applied Physical Systems team, designing acquisition hardware and software, instrumenting factory floor equipment, and turning data into actionable insights for process improvement.

You will split time between hardware design, software development, and on-site instrumentation, collaborating with process, data, and controls engineers to enable scalable, production-ready systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical, computer or mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field.
• Strong electrical fundamentals, including grounding, shielding and noise in measurement systems.
• Software engineering in Python and C or C++, including version control and testing.
• Control fundamentals, with experience in feedback control of a physical process.
• Experience selecting, placing and calibrating sensors across force, vibration, acoustic, optical, thermal and electrical measurements.
• Experience with digital signal processing, including filtering, spectral analysis and feature extraction.
• Experience designing multi-channel DAQ systems, including sampling, triggering and time synchronization.
• Experience writing embedded or real-time software on microcontrollers, FPGAs or real-time controllers.
• Comfort working on the factory floor with operators and process engineers to learn what needs measuring.
• Daily use of AI tools for analysis, firmware and documentation, with experience reviewing and verifying outputs for quality and completeness.

Responsibilities

• Design vendor-agnostic data acquisition (DAQ) systems, covering sensors, signal conditioning, time base, edge compute, storage and APIs.
• Instrument manufacturing equipment and processes, and reuse the same platform across machines.
• Specify sensors, placement and front-end electronics against noise and bandwidth budgets.
• Synchronize process signals with robot and machine position and state.
• Build signal-processing pipelines that turn raw data into features and process state.
• Work with process engineering teams to turn failure modes into measurement requirements.
• Decide when COTS hardware is enough, and design or contract custom electronics when it is not.
• Develop monitoring and closed-loop control of physical processes.

Skills

Electrical fundamentals

Python

C/C++

Control fundamentals

Sensor selection

Digital signal processing

Multi-channel DAQ systems

Embedded/real-time software

Factory floor collaboration

AI tools usage

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, physics or related field

Tools

KiCad

Altium

Job description

HADRIAN - MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost.

Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built.

Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen.

If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

The Role

Applied Physical Systems is a small, cross-functional engineering team at Hadrian. We build technology that spans more than one manufacturing capability, needs hardware and software designed together, and can't be bought off the shelf. We take a solution from proof of concept through prototype to a first production-ready version, then hand it to the teams that run it at scale. Engineers on the team design, build and commission their own systems on the factory floor.

You will lead how Hadrian measures its machines and processes, from sensor selection to data that engineers can act on. Your time will split between designing acquisition hardware and software, instrumenting equipment on the factory floor, and analyzing the signals you collect. You will work with process and manufacturing engineers to learn which failures matter, with data and software teams on how process data is stored and used, and with controls engineers as the work moves toward closed-loop control.

What You’ll Do

• Design vendor-agnostic data acquisition (DAQ) systems, covering sensors, signal conditioning, time base, edge compute, storage and APIs
• Instrument manufacturing equipment and processes, and reuse the same platform across machines
• Specify sensors, placement and front-end electronics against noise and bandwidth budgets
• Synchronize process signals with robot and machine position and state
• Build signal-processing pipelines that turn raw data into features and process state
• Work with process engineering teams to turn failure modes into measurement requirements
• Decide when COTS hardware is enough, and design or contract custom electronics when it is not
• Develop monitoring and closed-loop control of physical processes

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in electrical, computer or mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field
• Strong electrical fundamentals, including grounding, shielding and noise in measurement systems
• Software engineering in Python and C or C++, including version control and testing
• Control fundamentals, with experience in feedback control of a physical process
• Experience selecting, placing and calibrating sensors across force, vibration, acoustic, optical, thermal and electrical measurements
• Experience with digital signal processing, including filtering, spectral analysis and feature extraction
• Experience designing multi-channel DAQ systems, including sampling, triggering and time synchronization
• Experience writing embedded or real-time software on microcontrollers, FPGAs or real-time controllers
• Comfort working on the factory floor with operators and process engineers to learn what needs measuring
• Daily use of AI tools for analysis, firmware and documentation, with experience reviewing and verifying outputs for quality and completeness

What Will Set You Apart

• Training and validating data-driven process models, such as anomaly detection or defect classifiers
• PCB design in KiCad or Altium through fabrication and bring-up
• Analog front-end design for low-noise sensors
• Mixed-signal design with ADCs, clocking and isolation
• Integrating sensors and electronics into machines and enclosures
• Industrial networks such as EtherCAT, PROFINET or EtherNet/IP
• System-level integration and validation in production environments
• Defining data contracts and interfaces between hardware, software and data teams

Compensation

For this role, the target salary range is $268,000 - $321,000 (actual range may vary based on experience).

This is the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee's pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors, including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

BENEFITS FOR FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
  401k
• Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.
• Flexible vacation policy
• Equity

ITAR REQUIREMENTS

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

USE OF AI IN HIRING

Hadrian uses AI-assisted tools in our recruiting and hiring processes to help our team work more efficiently. This may include tools that help organize and analyze recruiting data, as well as an AI-powered notetaker that can record and transcribe interviews and help coordinate feedback. These tools support our team and are not used to make hiring decisions. All candidate evaluations and hiring decisions are performed by humans. If an interview will be recorded, you will be notified in advance and may opt out at any time with no impact on your candidacy. Candidate data processed through these tools is subject to the same protections described in our Privacy Policy https://www.hadrian.co/privacy-policy.

CONSIDERATION OF CRIMINAL HISTORY

Hadrian will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of all applicable laws. We do not ask about criminal history on our application, and we do not consider criminal history before making a conditional offer of employment.

HADRIAN IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Hadrian does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, marital status, mental status, physical disability or any other legally protected status. When necessary, the Company also makes reasonable accommodations for disabled candidates and employees, including for candidates or employees who are disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.