Section
About the Role
Hardware Design Engineer
Headcount: 6–7 positions
Location: On-site at HQ — Costa Mesa, CA (initial 6-month duration)
Contract: 6 months
Start: New hires should become productive within ~1 week via on-the-job training
Interview Process
Phone screen
Technical interview
Panel interview at the Costa Mesa office
Security / Clearance: US citizenship required
Why Hiring
Hiring ~7 engineers to support hardware development tasks for an electromechanical propulsion product over a 6-month period.
End Product: Electromechanical propulsion product hardware
Tech / Domain Environment
~70% design-centric role
Altium Designer is the primary required tool
Cadence, RCAD, or Mentor Graphics experience offers some flexibility
Aerospace experience is not required — domain expertise matters more than industry background
Covers analog, digital, and power electronics, especially:
Sensors
Motor drivers
PCB design
Job Duties
Conduct architectural investigations
Perform root cause analysis
Perform worst-case analysis
Analyze electrical derating performance
Support hardware–software integration
Improve manufacturing scalability
Work across the full hardware development lifecycle (not primarily a test engineer role)
Support hardware development for an electromechanical propulsion product
Must Haves
Hardware design engineering experience across the hardware development lifecycle
Experience with analog, digital, and power electronics
Experience with sensors, motor drivers, and PCB design
Altium Designer experience
US citizenship
Technical depth expected (interview topics):
Explain buck-converter operation, including inductor current paths when the gate pulse is high and low
Select a buck-converter inductor using % current-ripple range and a capacitor using % voltage-ripple range
Explain high-side buck-converter switch drive concepts: charge pump, bootstrap, isolated bias supply, gate driver — and which option to use and why
Explain switching and conduction losses in a buck-converter FET (equations / how to find switching-loss equation)
Explain linear-mode FET operation and losses (loss equation + datasheet checks for linear operation)
Draw non-inverting amplifier and differential amplifier schematics and provide the Vin ? Vout equation
Explain anti-aliasing filters, PCB placement, cutoff-frequency formula, and sampling frequency for a 150 kHz signal
Draw the physical I2C circuit (master ? slave) and explain clock and data lines
Draw the physical SPI circuit (master ? slave) and explain MOSI, MISO, CS, and Clock
Propose and justify a 6-layer PCB stackup distributing power, ground, and signal layers for analog sensors, a power supply, and a microcontroller
Additional process notes:
Talent is prioritized over specific experience levels
Candidates must be available for initial phone-screen scheduling after passing initial screening
Submit the top 3 candidates initially by email (resume, availability, and other necessary details)
Obtain an executed right-to-represent document from each candidate
Nice to Haves
Cadence, RCAD, or Mentor Graphics familiarity
Aerospace experience
Product experience in propulsion
Experience bands represented across openings: ~2–4 years, 4–8 years, or 8+ years
Disqualifiers
Test-engineering background without hardware design experience across the lifecycle
Lack of basic electrical engineering knowledge
Poor cultural fit
Excessive ego