Senior Electrical Engineer — Rugged Flight Hardware & Firmware

AdAstra Talent Advisors; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k)

Health insurance

Dental & Vision

Unlimited PTO

Catered lunches (2x per week)

Job summary

AdAstra Talent Advisors is seeking a Sr. Electrical Engineer for a hands-on hardware role with a climate/space focused startup client. You will design, prototype, and debug flight hardware, running PCB bring-up and manufacturing support while pushing performance from -70°C to +40°C.

You’ll ship practical designs quickly, balancing theory with bench work, hardware debugging, and close collaboration with mechanical and firmware teams to turn concepts into robust, scalable systems.

Qualifications

• Strong fundamentals in embedded circuit and system design.
• Hands-on troubleshooting of boards and assemblies.
• Proficiency with reading schematics and datasheets.
• Experience with PCB layout and Altium.
• Proficiency with lab equipment (oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers).
• Interest in the underlying physics.
• Enjoy applying increasingly out-of-the-box solutions to reduce part count and complexity.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and test PCBs for critical new flight and ground systems
• Troubleshoot and resolve (only the most pressing) issues on existing hardware
• Conduct comprehensive bench and environmental testing to validate electrical systems under extreme conditions
• Work closely with mechanical engineers to ensure proper integration on a vehicle with about as many structural PCBs as custom 3D parts
• Support flight operations with troubleshooting of deployed hardware via real-time telemetry
• Coordinate PCBA manufacturing for both R&D and production
• Develop firmware for initial bring-up of new boards and custom testing of existing boards

Skills

Embedded design

PCB troubleshooting

Schematic reading

Datasheet literacy

Power management

C/C++ firmware

Extreme-temperature design

Out-of-the-box thinking

Education

Bachelor's or higher in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Altium

Job description

AdAstra Talent Advisors is seeking a Sr. Electrical Engineer for a hands-on hardware role with a climate/space focused startup client. You will design, prototype, and debug flight hardware, running PCB bring-up and manufacturing support while pushing performance from -70°C to +40°C.

You’ll ship practical designs quickly, balancing theory with bench work, hardware debugging, and close collaboration with mechanical and firmware teams to turn concepts into robust, scalable systems.