Senior AFTS Hardware Engineer (Flight Safety Systems)

Castelion; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Castelion is seeking a Senior Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) Hardware Engineer to design and deliver high‑reliability flight safety electronics for Castelion's long‑range hypersonic strike vehicles. You will work hands‑on with multidisciplinary teams to design, build, test, and validate pulsed power electronics and firing systems, focusing on ESADs and related architectures.

You will lead the architecture and implementation of safety‑critical hardware, develop robust initiation

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of experience designing and validating pulsed power, high‑voltage, or firing system electronics for aerospace, defense, or similar high‑reliability applications.
• Strong background in energy storage, high‑speed/high‑current switching, and pulsed power circuit design.
• Experience with ESADs, initiation systems, or similar safety‑critical hardware.
• Proficiency in circuit design, simulation, and analysis tools (SPICE, MATLAB/Simulink).
• Experience with hardware bring‑up, environmental testing, and troubleshooting in lab/flight hardware environments.
• Familiarity with safety, redundancy, and fault‑tolerant design for mission‑critical systems.
• Experience designing for EMI/EMC, thermal performance, extreme environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop pulsed power electronics for flight termination and firing systems.
• Lead architecture and implementation of ESADs and related safety‑critical hardware.
• Develop robust initiation and firing circuits with redundancy and fault tolerance.
• Collaborate with avionics, GNC, flight software, and systems engineering teams for integration.
• Perform circuit‑ and system‑level modeling to validate performance under flight conditions.
• Define and execute qualification, environmental, and flight test plans.
• Support hardware bring‑up, integration, and test campaigns including debugging and root-cause analysis.
• Ensure compliance with safety, range, and mission assurance requirements.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote best practices in high‑reliability design.

Skills

Pulsed power design

High-voltage electronics

ESADs safety hardware

Circuit simulation

Lab bring-up

EMI/EMC

Redundancy and fault tolerance

Problem-solving

Education

BS/Master/PhD in Electrical Engineering

Tools

SPICE

MATLAB/Simulink

Job description

Castelion is seeking a Senior Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) Hardware Engineer to design and deliver high‑reliability flight safety electronics for Castelion's long‑range hypersonic strike vehicles. You will work hands‑on with multidisciplinary teams to design, build, test, and validate pulsed power electronics and firing systems, focusing on ESADs and related architectures.

You will lead the architecture and implementation of safety‑critical hardware, develop robust initiation