Electrical Design Engineer, Avionics in San Francisco, California at Exploration Technology Group

About etc.

etc, the Exploration Technology Corp, is a team of techno-optimists and outdoors adventurers. We are motivated by the challenge of solving tough engineering problems, committed to creating sustainable change, and driven by a curiosity to explore and understand both our natural world and the universe.

For decades, the tools and technologies developed for spaceflight, defense, and exploration have not only helped us expand our understanding of the universe but have also supported human advancement here on Earth. We carry this legacy forward, knowing that innovation in these areas can lead to solutions that help people everywhere.

At etc, we are actively developing cutting-edge exploration and defense missions. If you join the team, you will have the opportunity to work on hardware and software for US Department of Defense missions, NASA programs, and much more.

About the role

We're hiring a hands-on electrical engineer to join our team building space hardware systems. You'll act as the responsible engineer for the high-speed embedded electronics and interconnects on real flight hardware, owning boards and harnesses from concept through schematic, layout, build, bring-up, qualification, and flight integration. While you should be experienced with high-speed digital board design, this isn't a narrow specialist role; we are seeking a generalist who is as comfortable at the test bench and the design station, sees the big picture, moves fast, and thrives on solving a new problem every day.

What you'll do

• High-Speed Digital Design: Own schematic design, component selection, and PCB
  layout for embedded avionics boards, including compute, networking, interface,
  and interconnect hardware. Design high-speed digital interfaces and memory and
  gigabit links with proper timing closure, develop clocking and clock distribution
  architectures, and manage stack-up, controlled impedance, and signal integrity
  from first principles.
• Power & Reliability: Perform power budgeting and system-level power allocation
  across board subsystems. Design robust power architectures with sequencing,
  protection, and fault recovery. Apply radiation-tolerant design techniques, including
  SEE mitigation, TID considerations, and appropriate component derating, to
  produce highly reliable electronics for extreme environments
• Harness Design: Design wire harnesses and cable assemblies for flight and ground
  systems, including connector selection, pinouts, wire routing, shielding, and strain
  relief. Produce harness drawings and build documentation to workmanship
  standards.
• Build & Sourcing: Generate fabrication and assembly drawings, BOMs, and build
  instructions. Source components and manage fabrication and assembly vendors for
  prototype and low-rate production builds. Assemble, rework, and troubleshoot
  boards and harnesses by hand, and design fixtures and tooling to simplify recurring
  work
• Bring-Up, Test & Qualification: Drive board bring-up including configuration,
  interface verification, and structured debugging down to the component level.
  Define acceptance and qualification test requirements, then develop and execute
  bench, functional, and environmental test campaigns to prove out the design.
• Integration: Collaborate with software, mechanical, thermal, and manufacturing
  teams through design reviews and cross-functional integration. Provide hands-on
  support for assembly, test, and integration in San Francisco and at customer facilities.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or
  related technical field.
• Experience: 3+ years of professional experience in avionics or embedded hardware
  design, analysis, and unit-level testing, preferably in aerospace, defense, robotics,
  or similar
• Technical skills:
• • Proficiency in a modern EDA tool for schematic capture and multi-layer PCB
    layout (Altium, KiCad, or similar)
  • Experience designing high-speed digital interfaces and embedded compute
    hardware, including signal integrity, timing closure, and length/impedance-
    matched routing
  • Experience with analog, digital, and mixed-signal multi-layer PCB design,
    including power supply design
  • Experience designing wire harnesses and creating harness drawings
  • Experience with board bring-up and debug using standard avionics test
    equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, and current
    probes
  • Comfortable at the bench with soldering, crimping, and hands-on assembly
    and rework
  • Experience sourcing components and working with fabrication and assembly vendors
  • Ability to produce clear design documentation, drawings, and test procedures
• Preferences:
• • Expeditionary mindset: you have the curiosity and drive to ask big questions about the natural world and deploy systems to extreme environments to answer those questions
  • Experience as a responsible engineer for flight hardware from conception through qualification and flight
  • Experience with space systems, satellites, or aerospace hardware development
  • Familiarity with radiation effects (SEE, SEU, TID) and mitigation techniques
  • Experience designing around system-on-module or embedded compute platforms
  • Familiarity with IPC workmanship standards (IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620) and NASA workmanship standards
  • Basic scripting (Python or similar) for test automation and data analysis
  • Previous start-up work experience

What We Offer

• Equity participation, healthcare, flexible PTO, and professional development opportunities.