Senior PCB Design Engineer

Castelion; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Castelion is seeking a Senior PCB Design Engineer in Los Angeles to lead the design, development, and delivery of smart PCBs that form the brain of missile systems. You will own architecture through production, integrating microcontrollers, FPGAs, and network interfaces with tight timing and reliability requirements.

You will collaborate with firmware, software, and mechanical teams to drive schematic capture, layout, and DFM/DFT, and coordinate with contract manufacturers on bring-up and

Qualifications

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• Experience in high-complexity PCB design and delivery.
• Proven cradle-to-grave ownership of smart PCB systems (ideally with compute and networking functionality).

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end development of complex smart PCBs from concept through production and test.
• Architect and design mixed-signal boards including microcontrollers, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, DDR, network switches, and power management.
• Select and integrate processors, FPGAs, memory, and network interfaces for custom embedded compute platforms.
• Collaborate with firmware, software, and mechanical teams to ensure integration and functionality.
• Drive schematic capture, component selection, PCB layout, and DFM/DFT processes.
• Work with contract manufacturers and internal teams to manage board builds, bring-up, and validation.
• Define and execute bring-up and test plans from bench to system level.

Skills

Cradle-to-grave ownership

Embedded processors/microcontrollers

Signal integrity / power integrity

Cross-functional collaboration

Fast-paced hardware-first environment

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Altium Designer

OrCAD

Job description

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production at scale. We're designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts.

We are seeking a Senior PCB Design Engineer to lead the design, development, and delivery of smart circuit boards that form the brain of our missile systems. You'll be responsible for everything from initial architecture through layout, manufacturing, test, and integration. You'll work closely with electrical, firmware, and mechanical engineers to deliver tightly integrated, high-reliability systems.

This role is ideal for someone who has designed and delivered complex smart PCBs - with embedded microcontrollers, high-speed interfaces, and networking components - ideally in constrained or mission-critical environments.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end development of complex smart PCBs - from concept through production and test.
• Architect and design mixed-signal boards that include microcontrollers, high-speed digital interfaces (e.g., Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, DDR, etc.), network switches, and power management circuits.
• Select and integrate processors, FPGAs, memory, and network interfaces to create custom embedded compute platforms.
• Collaborate with firmware, software, and mechanical teams to ensure successful integration and functionality.
• Drive schematic capture, component selection, PCB layout, and DFM/DFT processes.
• Work with contract manufacturers and internal teams to manage board builds, bring-up, and validation.
• Define and execute bring-up and test plans, from bench to system-level.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• Experience in high-complexity PCB design and delivery.
• Proven track record of cradle-to-grave ownership of smart PCB systems (ideally with compute and networking functionality).

Strong experience with:

• Embedded processors or microcontrollers (ARM, RISC-V, etc.)
• High-speed digital interfaces (Ethernet, USB, DDR, PCIe)
• Network switch integration or routing devices
• Signal integrity and power integrity considerations
• Proficient in Altium Designer, OrCAD, or similar EDA tools.
• Familiar with board-level EMC, grounding, shielding, and thermal design.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, hardware-first environment.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Exposure to embedded systems bring-up and debugging.
• Experience working with test labs, EMI/EMC qualification, or environmental testing.
• Familiarity with FPGA/SoC design workflows.

Leadership Qualities

• Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to break through ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. Ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.
• High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion's mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company's technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.
• Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company-desired outcomes without compromising relationships. Emails, IMs and verbal interactions are logical, drive clarity, and detailed enough to eliminate ambiguity.
• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment at Castelion. All employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers four weeks of paid time off per year.