Senior Sustaining Electrical Engineer in San Diego, California at Firestorm

Who We AreAt 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 RoleThe Sustaining Electrical Engineer owns released electrical hardware throughout the product lifecycle, spanning PCB and system-level design, production scaling, field support, and continuous improvement. The focus is keeping products reliable, manufacturable, testable, serviceable, and cost-effective as they scale and evolve in the field.
This role is ideal for an engineer with strong technical judgment and hands-on problem-solving skills who enjoys taking ownership of complex hardware and driving ambiguous problems through validated solutions. This position may be filled at the Senior or Staff level based on experience, technical depth, and demonstrated scope of ownership.
What You’ll Do

• Design and implement electrical changes across schematics, PCBAs, power distribution, wiring, interfaces, and supporting hardware.
• Own electrical sustainment of released products from production ramp through field support and end-of-life, serving as a key technical point of contact for electrical integration.
• Troubleshoot PCBAs, electronic assemblies, wiring, power systems, and integrated hardware down to the component level across production and fielded systems.
• Drive root-cause investigations for production, test, and field failures and implement corrective and preventive actions through analysis, design changes, and validation.
• Own ECR/ECO execution and maintain released design documentation and configuration control within PLM systems, including schematics, BOMs, wiring diagrams, drawings, test procedures, and configuration records.
• Define and execute verification, regression, and reliability testing for sustaining changes, alternate components, and product improvements.
• Support production and NPI transitions by addressing test failures, yield issues, assembly risks, manufacturability, testability, and electrical integration challenges.
• Evaluate component substitutions, obsolescence, and supplier-driven changes, and own the technical qualification of alternate parts and materials.
• Drive electrical system tradeoffs across size, weight, power, EMC, reliability, manufacturability, and integration constraints, including high-power components and distribution architectures.
• Partner with Product Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Customer Support, firmware, software, mechanical, test, and suppliers to improve product quality, reliability, serviceability, and cost.
• Contribute to design reviews and drive continuous improvement across the released product portfolio.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 3+ years of professional experience developing or sustaining complex electrical hardware; level will be determined based on experience and scope of ownership.
• Strong hands-on lab and debugging skills using standard electrical test equipment, with the ability to isolate failures to the circuit or component level.
• Familiarity with hardware configuration control, ECR/ECO workflows, PLM systems, and released-product documentation practices.
• Working knowledge of DFM/DFT, hardware reliability, production test, and the considerations required to transition and sustain hardware at scale.
• Strong fundamentals in analog, digital, and power electronics, with demonstrated experience owning full-cycle PCB development.
• Strong technical communication and cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to manage ambiguity and multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Must be a U.S. Person as defined by applicable U.S. export control laws and regulations.

Compensation

• Base salary: $130,000 - $145,000
• Equity: Meaningful equity grant in a growth-stage defense technology company