Director of Electrical Engineering

Neon Aerospace•Irvine, CA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Neon Aero is seeking a Director of Electrical Engineering to lead the development and delivery of complex electrical and electronic systems across its growing portfolio of electromechanical products. This is a product engineering leadership role for an electrical engineer who has shipped complex hardware and understands what it takes to move from architecture and prototype development through validation, industrialization, production ramp, and field deployment. The role involves building and leading the Electrical Engineering organization, partnering closely with the VP of Engineering and other Engineering Directors, and remaining technically engaged to challenge architectures, review designs, diagnose difficult system problems, and make sound engineering decisions. Aerospace experience is not required; the company values leaders who have successfully developed products in environments such as consumer electronics, automotive, robotics, medical devices, industrial systems, energy, aerospace, or other high-performance hardware industries. Breadth of experience and a demonstrated ability to ship production hardware are prioritized over experience in any one industry. The role operates in a fast-paced, product-driven environment where priorities may shift around major development, validation, manufacturing, and production milestones. Work may occur across office, laboratory, prototype, test, and manufacturing environments.

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field; equivalent professional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
12+ years of progressive experience developing complex electrical or electronic products.
5+ years of experience leading or managing Electrical Engineering, Hardware Engineering, or multidisciplinary hardware teams.
Demonstrated experience taking multiple complex hardware products or major subsystems from concept through production and shipment.
Broad technical understanding across multiple electrical engineering domains rather than experience limited to a single specialty.
Strong electrical system architecture and product-development judgment.
Experience with combinations of embedded processors or microcontrollers, analog and mixed-signal circuitry, power electronics, motor drives, sensors, communications, power distribution, and battery or energy systems.
Strong understanding of schematic design, PCB development, component selection, board bring-up, debugging, verification, and production release.
Experience integrating electrical hardware into complex electromechanical products.
Strong understanding of DFM, DFT, manufacturing test, production yield, component sourcing, supplier quality, and electronics manufacturing.
Direct experience working with suppliers and contract manufacturers to solve development and production problems.
Strong understanding of hardware verification, reliability, failure analysis, root-cause investigation, and data-driven engineering decision-making.
Demonstrated ability to hire, mentor, organize, and lead senior technical engineers.
Ability to work across engineering disciplines and make sound decisions when requirements, constraints, or data are incomplete.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex engineering issues, risks, and tradeoffs to technical teams and company leadership.
A product mindset that considers mechanical packaging, software behavior, controls, thermal performance, manufacturing, reliability, cost, and customer needs when making electrical engineering decisions.
First-principles engineering judgment and the ability to lead specialists without needing to be the deepest expert in every electrical discipline.
A demonstrated focus on shipping production hardware with the quality, reliability, manufacturability, and cost discipline required for repeatable production.
Ability to work for extended periods at a computer, participate in technical meetings and design reviews, and move periodically between office, laboratory, prototype, test, and manufacturing environments.
U.S. Persons Status required.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing products across multiple industries or product categories, including consumer electronics, automotive, robotics, industrial equipment, medical devices, energy systems, or aerospace.
Experience with high-power electrical systems, including power conversion, inverters, motor drives, battery systems, or high-voltage power distribution.
Experience developing power supplies, power-conversion systems, or power-distribution architectures operating in the approximately 400 to 1200 V range.
Experience with PMSM or BLDC motor drives, inverter architectures, current sensing, gate drives, and motor-control hardware.
Experience with battery systems, BMS hardware, contactors, pre-charge systems, high-voltage distribution, and energy-management architectures.
Experience with communication interfaces such as CAN, Ethernet, RS-485, SPI, I2C, or comparable embedded interfaces.
Experience designing products for high-volume or highly automated manufacturing environments.
Experience with regulatory, safety-critical, or high-reliability product development.
Aerospace development or certification experience, including DO-160, DO-254, ARP4754/4761, or related frameworks.

Responsibilities

Lead the Electrical Engineering organization across architecture, development, validation, industrialization, production release, and sustaining support.
Build and develop a team of strong engineers across electronics, power systems, embedded hardware, and related electrical disciplines.
Shape architectures spanning power electronics, embedded digital hardware, analog and mixed-signal electronics, motor drives, sensing, energy systems, communications, power distribution, and electromechanical integration.
Influence product decisions across electrical, mechanical, embedded software, controls, thermal, manufacturing, reliability, cost, and supply-chain boundaries.
Establish the engineering practices required to move from working prototypes to hardware that can be manufactured, tested, shipped, and supported repeatedly.
Work directly with suppliers, contract manufacturers, and manufacturing teams through prototype builds, NPI, production ramp, yield improvement, and cost reduction.
Remain technically engaged in architecture reviews, design reviews, debugging, failure investigations, and major engineering decisions.
Help define longer-term electrical technology and architecture strategies while maintaining a strong focus on executable product development.