Senior Avionics Engineer

Poseidon Aerospace•Alameda, CA

About The Position

As a Senior Avionics Engineer at Poseidon Aerospace, you will own the electrical and avionics architecture of the company's autonomous cargo aircraft, mission systems, and ground control station. This role involves defining how the aircraft is powered, selecting its computers and actuators, designing its communication systems, and determining its behavior during hardware failures. You will guide these decisions through the entire lifecycle, from design and build to qualification and flight testing, while also setting technical standards for the engineering team.

Requirements

B.S. in electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience
5+ years designing and integrating avionics or electrical systems on aircraft, spacecraft, or comparable vehicles
Owned the electrical or avionics architecture of a vehicle or major subsystem from concept through test
Designed power distribution systems, including circuit protection and load analysis
Took avionics hardware through integration and ground or flight test on a real vehicle
Experience with redundancy design and failure mode analysis for safety-critical hardware
Led design reviews and set technical direction for other engineers

Nice To Haves

Experience with uncrewed aircraft, including command and control datalinks and ground control station hardware
Experience integrating mission systems or payloads
Experience with fly-by-wire actuation systems
Experience qualifying hardware to DO-160 or developing hardware under DO-254
Familiarity with ARP4754A and ARP4761 system safety processes
Familiarity with MIL-STD-704, MIL-STD-461, and AS50881
Experience with flight test instrumentation and data acquisition systems
Private pilot certificate or Part 107 certificate

Responsibilities

Own the electrical and avionics architecture of the aircraft, mission systems, and ground control station, including redundancy and failure behavior
Define the power system architecture, including generation, storage, distribution, and protection, and own the electrical load analysis
Lead selection and qualification of flight computers, mission computers, actuators, sensors, radios, and datalinks
Define the data bus and network architecture across the aircraft and ground control station
Own interface control documents between avionics, flight software, GNC, propulsion, and airframe
Set standards for schematics, wire harness design, grounding, bonding, and shielding
Plan and lead EMI/EMC and environmental qualification testing
Define the flight test instrumentation architecture with the flight test team
Lead root cause analysis of avionics hardware failures in ground and flight test, including travel to our flight test site
Support system safety assessments and certification evidence for avionics hardware
Manage avionics suppliers and outside test labs
Lead design reviews and mentor other avionics engineers