Staff Electrical Engineer, Design

Firestorm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Job summary

Firestorm is seeking a Staff Electrical Engineer to develop critical electrical hardware for aircraft, including power distribution, power conversion, and battery charging. You will tackle high-performance processing, high-speed networking, and overall system integration.

You will work hands-on across circuit development, trade studies, and hardware debugging, ensuring robust, manufacturable designs for aerospace-grade applications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or related technical field.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience designing and releasing electrical hardware for products used in real-world settings.
• Strong fundamentals across analog, digital, mixed-signal, power, sensing, and communication circuits.
• Proficiency with EDA tools such as Altium Designer and Cadence Allegro/OrCAD.

Responsibilities

• Own full hardware development lifecycle from concept through production.
• Design embedded control electronics including circuit schematics, PCB layout, board bring-up, and system integration.
• Develop space‑, weight‑, and thermally constrained PCBs (HDI, flex, rigid‑flex).
• Generate engineering documentation: ECOs, fabrication drawings, BOMs, release packages.
• Perform root-cause analysis to improve performance, manufacturability, or reliability.
• Interface with vendors to source components and ensure timely delivery.
• Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, software, firmware, and test teams to deliver products.
• Support project timelines and report progress to senior management.

Skills

Power electronics

System-level design

Root-cause analysis

Clear documentation

Circuit debugging

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or related technical field

Tools

Altium Designer

Cadence Allegro/OrCAD

Job description

Who We Are

At Firestorm, we’re on a mission to revolutionize how defense solutions are designed and delivered. Our goal is to empower U.S. ally nations to effectively deter aggressors—regardless of their defense budget—through innovative, cost-efficient technologies. We call this vision "democratized deterrence." As a VC-backed company at the intersection of defense and Silicon Valley, we’re pioneering the development of mission-adaptable aerial vehicles that put power back into the hands of operators. By prioritizing operator effectiveness, we’re pioneering a new era of aerial vehicle design. We aim to upend the traditional defense procurement model by delivering world-class capabilities at a fraction of the usual cost. Join us at Firestorm as we redefine defense procurement, making cutting-edge technology accessible to all at a fraction of the cost.

About the Role

As a Staff Electrical Engineer, you will play a central role in developing critical electrical hardware for our aircraft. The role spans complex technical challenges including power distribution, power conversion, battery charging, high-performance processing, high-speed network communications, and system-level electrical integration.

This is a hands‑on engineering role for someone with deep technical expertise in power electronics and electrical system design who is comfortable moving between detailed circuit development, system-level tradeoffs, and difficult hardware debugging.

What You’ll Do

• Evaluate, interpret and resolve systems engineering problems to meet the design requirements
• Full-cycle hardware development: Own the entire flow — concept, modeling, worst case analysis, schematic capture, simulation, prototyping, design reiteration for improving design maturity, testing and validation
• Design embedded control electronics from concept to production, including hardware selection, schematic & PCB design, board bring‑up, system-level integration, and flight test
• Design multilayer, HDI, flex, and rigid‑flex PCBs for space‑ , weight‑ , and thermally constrained applications
• Generate comprehensive engineering documentation, including ECOs, fabrication drawings, BOMs, and release packages
• Conduct root cause analysis of PCB design or layout issues, identify corrective actions, and implement solutions to improve performance, manufacturability, or reliability
• Design and maintain cable harness documentation using Altium Harness Designer
• Interface with vendors to source and select appropriate components for designs, ensuring quality and timely delivery
• Project Management: Support project timelines and ensure that technical milestones are met, reporting on progress to senior management
• Work closely with other electrical, mechanical, software, firmware, and test engineers to deliver fully functional products

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or a related technical field
• Minimum 5+ years of experience designing and releasing electrical hardware for products that have shipped, flown, operated in the field, or otherwise seen real-world use
• U.S. Person status (Citizen or Permanent Resident) required due to ITAR regulations
• Strong electrical engineering fundamentals across analog, digital, mixed‑signal, power, sensing, and communication circuits
• Strong proficiency with industry-standard EDA tools (e.g., Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD)
• Working knowledge of PCB layout tradeoffs, signal integrity, power integrity, grounding, EMI/EMC, thermal behavior, and manufacturability
• Familiarity with signal integrity and transmission line concepts (e.g., phase matching, crosstalk, insertion/return loss, termination, and BGA breakout strategies)
• Strong root‑cause analysis skills and the ability to move from ambiguous symptoms to clear technical conclusions and practical corrective actions
• Clear communication and documentation habits, especially when decisions affect safety, reliability, production, or fleet operations

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with avionics, aerospace, drones, robotics, automotive electronics, satellites, or other high-reliability hardware.
• Experience designing for weight, power consumption, thermal limits, vibration, shock, EMI/EMC, environmental exposure, or high-volume manufacturing.
• Familiarity with signal integrity simulation and analysis tools
• Experience with CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet, GNSS, radios, motor‑control electronics, battery systems, or sensor interfaces.

Compensation

Base salary:

$165,000 - $190,000

Equity:

Meaningful equity grant in a growth‑stage defense technology company