Senior Autonomous Flight Termination System Hardware Engineer

Castelion Corporation•Rio Rancho, NM

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) Hardware Engineer to design and deliver high-reliability flight safety electronics for Castelion's long-range hypersonic strike vehicles. This role is critical to ensuring safe, deterministic vehicle termination through robust, fault-tolerant hardware. You will work hands-on with multidisciplinary engineering teams to design, build, test, and validate pulsed power electronics and firing systems, with a focus on electronic safe and arm devices (ESADs) and related architectures in a fast-paced, hardware-driven environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field
5+ years of experience designing and validating pulsed power, high-voltage, or firing system electronics for aerospace, defense, or similar high-reliability applications
Strong background in energy storage, high-speed/high-current switching, and pulsed power circuit design
Experience with electronic safe and arm devices (ESADs), initiation systems, or similar safety-critical hardware
Proficiency in circuit design, simulation, and analysis tools (e.g., SPICE, MATLAB/Simulink, or equivalent)
Experience with hardware bring-up, environmental testing, and troubleshooting in a lab or flight hardware environment
Familiarity with system safety, redundancy, and fault-tolerant design principles for mission-critical systems
Experience designing for EMI/EMC, thermal performance, and operation in extreme environments
Strong problem-solving mindset, thriving in a fast-paced, hardware-rich, high flight cadence environment
U.S. citizenship is required
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government–issued security clearance

Responsibilities

Design and develop pulsed power electronics for flight termination and firing systems, including high-voltage energy storage, switching, and delivery circuits
Lead the architecture and implementation of electronic safe and arm devices (ESADs) and related safety-critical hardware
Develop robust initiation and firing circuits, ensuring deterministic performance, redundancy, and fault tolerance
Work closely with avionics, GNC, flight software, and systems engineering teams to ensure seamless integration of AFTS hardware with vehicle systems
Perform circuit-level and system-level modeling and analysis to validate performance, timing, and reliability under dynamic flight conditions
Define and execute qualification, environmental, and flight test plans, translating results into system-level improvements
Support hardware bring-up, integration, and test campaigns, including debugging, failure analysis, and root cause investigation
Ensure compliance with safety, range, and mission assurance requirements for flight termination systems
Mentor junior engineers and contribute to best practices in high-reliability pulsed power and safety-critical electronics design
Partner closely with program leadership to make technical trades aligned with mission success