Sr. Electrical Harness Engineer

present of AI; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

9 Mothers Austin-based team seeks a harness design engineer to create rugged interconnects for counter-drone turrets. You will route, document, and test harnesses to endure recoil, vibration and weather, ensuring reliability in field conditions.

The role requires hands-on bench testing for flex life and signal integrity, along with selecting connectors and coordinating with contract manufacturers to deliver buildable, cost-effective drawings.

Qualifications

• Experience shipping rugged harnesses for outdoor hardware.
• Ability to route and document harnesses in CAD.
• Prove flex life and signal integrity with bench tests.
• Cost judgment, connector selection and supplier sourcing.

Responsibilities

• Own and route harnesses from power to data links.
• Document designs in CAD ensuring buildability and affordability.
• Validate flex life, shielding, and weather sealing through tests.
• Assist in selecting connectors and contract manufacturers.

Skills

Harness design

Flex testing

CAD documentation

Fiber termination

IPC workmanship standards

EMI/EMC layouts familiarity

Edge compute hardware familiarity

Tools

CAD software

Job description

This role owns every cable in a counter drone turret, from power feeds and data links to fiber runs that cross moving joints. A strong candidate has shipped rugged harnesses for outdoor hardware, can route and document them in CAD, and can prove flex life and signal integrity with bench tests. The job also asks for cost judgment, connector selection and contract manufacturer sourcing, so drawings must be buildable and affordable, not just correct.

How it fits the AI era

The product pairs AI driven interception with physical hardware, so the harness carries the sensor and compute links that make those decisions possible. AI tools may speed up routing, wire lists and cost roll ups, but the calls on flex life, shielding and sealing still rest on test data and hands on bench work. The human part is judgment under real conditions: proving a design survives recoil, vibration and weather before it reaches the field.

How it builds AI experience

Work here means building the physical links between sensor heads and onboard compute, which is where AI perception meets real hardware. A candidate can build relevant experience by learning fiber termination, insertion loss testing and hybrid connector builds, and by getting fluent in IPC workmanship standards. Familiarity with edge compute hardware and EMI sensitive layouts would help, since the harnesses feed the AI systems directly.

Worth showing

• Rugged harness design
• Continuous flex cycle testing
• Fiber and hybrid termination
• Harness CAD and formboards

This is our own read, written from the employer's posting and the company's Spotlight. The employer's posting is the source of truth for the role.

About 9 Mothers

9 Mothers manufactures artificial intelligence point defense systems and kinetic counter-drone turrets to neutralize uncrewed aerial threats in contested defense environments.