Avionics & Electrical Engineer

Haast Autonomous•Pendleton, OR

About The Position

Haast Autonomous is developing an autonomous aircraft network for time-sensitive medical logistics, including long-range VTOL aircraft, autonomy software, and operational infrastructure. The company is early-stage and offers the opportunity to shape its culture, engineering processes, testing discipline, partner relationships, and development from prototype to an operational medical logistics network. The Avionics & Electrical Engineer will own the aircraft’s avionics, power-distribution, communications, and electrical integration architecture. The role involves designing reliable electrical systems for high-power electric VTOL aircraft; translating system requirements into schematics and harness documentation; selecting and validating components; and supporting assembly, ground testing, and flight testing. It combines electrical design, systems engineering, hands-on integration, and troubleshooting.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechatronics, or a related field.
Experience designing and integrating electrical or avionics systems.
Strong understanding of power electronics, embedded systems, digital communications, and electrical protection.
Ability to create and review schematics, wiring diagrams, pinout tables, and engineering drawings.
Experience using oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, power supplies, electronic loads, and other laboratory equipment.
Experience troubleshooting complex electrical systems at the component and system levels.
Ability to work directly with hardware and support hands-on aircraft integration.
Strong technical documentation and configuration-management habits.

Nice To Haves

Experience with electric aircraft, drones, robotics, automotive systems, spacecraft, or other safety-critical hardware.
Experience with high-voltage and high-current lithium battery systems.
Experience integrating motors, ESCs, battery-management systems, contactors, and power-distribution units.
Experience with CAN, DroneCAN, UART, SPI, I²C, Ethernet, RS-232, or RS-485.
Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, CubePilot, or similar autopilot ecosystems.
Experience designing PCBs in Altium, KiCad, OrCAD, or a similar platform.
Familiarity with EMI/EMC testing and aerospace grounding and shielding practices.
Familiarity with environmental qualification, electrical derating, FMEA, and fault-tolerant design.
Understanding of aviation development standards such as DO-160, DO-254, or SAE aerospace practices.
Experience taking an electrical system from prototype through low-rate production.
Evidence of building aircraft, drones, robots, vehicles, rockets, or other hard technical systems.

Responsibilities

Design the aircraft’s avionics and electrical power architecture.
Develop system block diagrams, schematics, wiring diagrams, connector pinouts, and harness drawings.
Size and select wiring, connectors, fuses, contactors, power-distribution components, regulators, and protective devices.
Integrate flight controllers, propulsion systems, batteries, sensors, radios, navigation systems, actuators, payload systems, and onboard computers.
Design electrical interfaces for high-voltage propulsion and low-voltage avionics systems.
Develop grounding, shielding, isolation, and EMI/EMC strategies.
Perform voltage-drop, current, thermal, power-budget, and failure-mode analyses.
Define electrical requirements, interface-control documents, and acceptance-test procedures.
Design or oversee the development of custom PCBs, interface boards, power-distribution boards, and test equipment.
Conduct bench testing, hardware-in-the-loop testing, ground testing, and flight-test support.
Diagnose electrical, avionics, communications, and power-system failures.
Work with mechanical, aerospace, controls, software, manufacturing, and flight-test engineers.
Review technician-built harnesses and electrical assemblies for compliance with engineering documentation.
Manage component obsolescence, lead-time risks, design changes, and configuration control.
Build scalable electrical design, verification, and documentation processes.