Lead, Forward Deployed Engineer

Aurelius Systems•San Francisco, CA

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge-deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We are a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. We are building the first cost-effective, reliable, and robust laser weapon system. We operate with a small team, unreasonable output, and no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range. We need a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead demonstrations, field tests, and field integration on Archimedes. You're a generalist engineer who can work across mechanical, electrical, and software when the system is in front of a customer or downrange. You'll set it up, you'll fix it when it breaks, and you'll be the credible technical face of Aurelius when an operator is standing next to you. Between deployments, you're back at the lab testing, breaking things on purpose, and bringing what you learned in the field back into the build.

Requirements

3 to 8+ years of hands-on engineering or technician experience on real hardware, ideally on systems that left the lab
Generalist depth across at least two of: mechanical, electrical, embedded software, integration
Hands-on troubleshooting skills with scope, multimeter, basic shop tools, and command line
Comfortable presenting and operating in front of customers, including military operators
Travel-ready and physically able to support field deployments including range conditions and equipment handling
Experience where you stood next to a piece of hardware in front of a customer when something failed and brought it back online
Comfortable being the only engineer on site
Ability to maintain composure when the system fails
Extreme bias for action
Calm under pressure
Ability to characterize your own systems before the field does
Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment
Clear communicator across operators, engineers, and customers
Self-directed; identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

Nice To Haves

Military service or close exposure to military operating environments
Counter-UAS, directed energy, or air defense experience
ROS2 or robotics field integration experience
Active TS/SCI clearance or eligibility
Welding, machining, or fabrication shop skills

Responsibilities

System setup, integration, and operation at demonstrations, field tests, and customer sites
Field troubleshooting and repair across mechanical, electrical, and software subsystems
Pre-deployment system checkout and packing, post-deployment teardown and debrief
Real-time integration work on novel hardware and software in non-lab conditions
Customer-facing technical interaction during demos, tests, and pilots
Capturing field observations, failure modes, and operator feedback and feeding them back to engineering
In-lab testing, characterization, and rig work between deployments