Principal Electrical Engineer

Summary

As a Principal Electrical Engineer, you join the Pirate Team—the highest engineering team at the company. Reporting directly to the CEO and acting as a collective, council CTO, the Pirate Team is the best of the best: a small band of the most senior engineers who set the technical direction, take on the problems no one else can, and hold the bar for how the entire company builds. This is not a role for people who want to be told what to do; it is for the engineers others look to when the answer isn't obvious.

In this role you own electrical engineering at its deepest level, across both data and power domains. You design the boards, the power systems, and the signal paths that make our mobile robotics platforms sense, compute, move, and survive. You know how to take a system from a blank schematic to a manufacturable PCB, and you know how to prove it works—so you build the fixtures, test benches, and characterization rigs that turn "it seems fine" into measured fact. You are not afraid to go below the board: you have designed, or are ready to design, custom silicon when off-the-shelf parts can't get us where we need to go. You are equally at home reasoning about a switching regulator's loop stability, a high-speed differential pair's return path, and the roadmap for a chip we haven't taped out yet.

Duties

• Own electrical architecture across data and power domains for our mobile robotics platforms—UAVs, UGVs, USVs—from concept through production
• Design complex multi-layer PCBs: high-speed digital, mixed-signal, RF-adjacent, and dense power electronics, with full ownership of schematic capture, layout direction, and design review
• Design and validate power electronics: switching regulators, motor drive, battery management, power distribution, and thermal budgeting for battery-powered mobile platforms
• Design data and signal-integrity-critical interfaces: high-speed buses, differential signaling, controlled impedance, EMI/EMC-aware layout, and grounding strategy
• Develop the fixtures, test benches, and automated characterization rigs needed to bring up, validate, and stress the hardware—make measurement a first-class part of how we build
• Explore and de-risk new techniques and technologies: evaluate novel components, topologies, and processes, and bring the promising ones into the product
• Scope, specify, and drive custom silicon (ASIC/SoC) or programmable logic (FPGA) efforts where standard parts fall short—own the trade study, the partners, and the bring-up
• Debug the hardest cross-domain electrical failures—power, signal integrity, thermal, timing—down to root cause using the right instruments and first-principles reasoning
• Define hardware interfaces and constraints in partnership with the embedded, mechatronics, and applications teams; own the electrical side of the seams
• Set and hold the electrical engineering bar company-wide as a member of the Pirate Team's council CTO—shape technical direction, weigh in on the hardest cross-team calls, and raise the level of every engineer around you

Required Skills

• Deep, demonstrated mastery of electrical engineering as a senior individual contributor—you have designed, shipped, and been trusted with the hardest hardware decisions
• Expert-level PCB design across data and power: multi-layer, high-speed, mixed-signal, and dense power boards, with real command of schematic capture and layout (Altium, KiCad, or equivalent)
• Strong power electronics expertise: switching converter design, motor drive, battery management, power distribution, and thermal management
• Strong data/signal-integrity expertise: high-speed digital design, controlled impedance, differential signaling, return-path and grounding discipline, EMI/EMC
• Proven ability to design and build fixtures, test benches, and characterization setups—you make hardware verifiable, not just buildable
• Exceptional debugging ability with the right tools and instincts: oscilloscopes, spectrum/network analyzers, logic analyzers, thermal cameras, and first-principles analysis
• Experience with, or genuine readiness to take on, custom silicon (ASIC/SoC) and/or FPGA development—you are not scared of going below the board
• Clear technical communication and the judgment to know when to reach for a standard part and when to build something new

Nice to Have

• Prior experience designing electronics for UAV, UGV, or USV platforms or other harsh-environment, mobile systems
• Hands-on ASIC/SoC experience: specification, vendor management, tape-out, and post-silicon bring-up
• FPGA design experience (VHDL/Verilog) for high-throughput data or real-time control paths
• Experience with high-speed interfaces and RF front ends relevant to robotics sensing and communications
• Familiarity with DFM/DFA and moving designs from prototype to volume production with contract manufacturers
• Familiarity with environmental and military standards (MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461, IP ratings)
• Experience with lab automation and instrument control for automated characterization and production test