Senior Hardware Repair Technician

AeroVironment•San Diego, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

AV is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Hardware Repair Technician to join our team in San Diego. The Senior Hardware Repair Technician will serve as a senior technical lead and subject-matter expert for hardware repair, warranty, service, refurbishment, upgrade, and returned-material activities. This position will receive, diagnose, troubleshoot, repair, modify, and test hardware to ensure that units meet quality, performance, reliability, and customer requirements. The position will support engineering, manufacturing, quality, and operations organizations while maintaining throughput throughout the repair pipeline. The Senior Hardware Repair Technician will work closely with mechanical, electrical, systems, manufacturing, quality, and operations teams to resolve complex hardware issues and improve repair processes. This role requires strong hands-on expertise with advanced electronics, RF assemblies, ruggedized computing systems, and system-level debugging. The successful candidate will provide technical guidance, mentoring, and work coordination to repair team members while maintaining a methodical, quality-focused approach. This position does not have formal supervisory or people-management accountability.

Requirements

Associate degree, technical certification, trade-school training, or equivalent practical experience in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, robotics, mechatronics, electronics, or a related technical discipline.
Minimum of five years of related experience in hardware repair, technical debugging, electronics manufacturing, systems integration, maintenance, or defect and failure analysis.
Demonstrated experience serving as a senior technician, technical lead, subject-matter expert, or equivalent technical resource.
Specialized technical expertise in electronics repair, mechanical repair, RF systems, system-level troubleshooting, functional testing, or failure analysis.
Strong mechanical aptitude and proficiency with hand tools used in electronics assembly, precision mechanical work, and repair.
Strong electronics troubleshooting skills, including proficiency with multimeters and standard electronic test equipment.
Experience with soldering, connector rework, cable repair, and wire-harness repair.
Familiarity with system-level, functional, acceptance, and validation testing.
Experience reading schematics, block diagrams, mechanical drawings, and engineering documentation.
Understanding of system integration and the ability to isolate mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software-related faults.
Strong understanding of RF principles, including frequency, impedance, gain, noise, and modulation.
Excellent hands-on skills, attention to detail, and a methodical approach to troubleshooting.
Strong documentation, communication, collaboration, and computer skills.
Ability to exchange advanced technical information and ideas effectively with technical and operational stakeholders.
Ability to work closely with engineering and operations personnel, follow test procedures, and comply with change-control requirements.
Ability to manage multiple repair activities concurrently while meeting quality, throughput, and schedule objectives.
Commitment to quality, safety, process discipline, and ESD-control requirements.
Ability to lift and maneuver unit assemblies weighing up to 40 pounds and wheeled cases weighing up to 75 pounds.
U.S. Citizenship Required

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, robotics engineering, mechatronics, or a related technical discipline.
Experience serving as a senior technician, technical lead, subject-matter expert, or project/team lead without formal people-management accountability.
Experience mentoring or providing technical guidance to technicians.
Experience with Oracle Fusion, particularly inventory, purchasing, materials management, work orders, or repair operations.
Experience assembling and repairing ruggedized or hardened computer systems designed for MIL-STD, vibration, EMC, or harsh-environment requirements.
Experience with failure-analysis tools, including microscopes, thermal imaging equipment, and other diagnostic equipment.
Experience with mechanical repair, alignment, micromechanics, and precision assemblies.
Experience debugging RF electronic systems.
Experience troubleshooting transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, and RF modules.
Experience with manufacturing test, acceptance test, field-return, warranty, or customer-support programs.
Familiarity with version-control systems, defect-tracking systems, repair databases, and enterprise-resource-planning tools.
IPC soldering, IPC rework, or other electronics-repair certifications.
Prior experience in aerospace, defense, medical-device, rugged-electronics, or other highly regulated industries.
Experience developing or improving repair procedures, work instructions, test fixtures, tooling, and process documentation.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior technical lead and subject-matter expert for hardware repairs, warranty returns, service activities, upgrades, refurbishment, and defect-management processes.
Receive, log, inspect, triage, and prioritize incoming hardware returns, defective units, and upgrade requests.
Independently complete complex repairs, refurbishment, upgrade, and returned-material assignments.
Coordinate repair priorities and facilitate work activities across hardware repair, engineering, manufacturing, quality, and operations teams.
Provide technical guidance, mentoring, coaching, and knowledge transfer to less-experienced technicians without formal supervisory responsibility.
Perform detailed diagnostics and troubleshooting to isolate mechanical, electrical, firmware, connectivity, RF, and system-level faults.
Repair RF assemblies, including connectors, cables, wire harnesses, sensors, mechanical subassemblies, and related electronic components.
Support firmware updates, calibration, alignment, burn-in, validation testing, and functional testing following repairs.
Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering to obtain schematics, test procedures, engineering change notices, engineering change orders, and applicable tolerances.
Implement approved corrective modifications, retrofits, and engineering changes.
Refurbish, rework, or upgrade units in accordance with specifications, procedures, work instructions, or customer requirements.
Perform and document root-cause and failure analysis and identify recurring failure trends.
Document repair steps, test results, root causes, corrective actions, and lessons learned.
Maintain accurate repair logs, databases, work orders, and related documentation.
Provide input to failure-analysis and continuous-improvement programs.
Track repair pipeline performance, including backlog, turnaround time, quality, first-pass yield, documentation accuracy, and schedule adherence.
Maintain spare-parts, consumables, tooling, and repair-material inventories.
Use Oracle Fusion, as applicable, for inventory, purchasing, materials-management, work-order, and repair-operation activities.
Ensure that repairs comply with quality, safety, regulatory, ESD-control, cleanroom, certification, and internal requirements.
Recommend improvements to repair processes, tooling, work instructions, test fixtures, documentation, and methods.
Independently coordinate issue resolution across repair, engineering, manufacturing, quality, and operations teams.
Communicate repair status, technical risks, resource needs, recurring issues, and process concerns for engineering and operations leadership.
Assist engineering with prototype debugging, mechanical modifications, test-fixture development, and system-level integration activities as needed.
Support technical onboarding and knowledge transfer as requested.
Perform other related duties as assigned.