System Hardware Engineer (Autonomous Flight Termination)
Senior hardware engineer at defense startup Castelion designing flight-safety electronics for hypersonic strike vehicles — hands-on design, build, and testing of pulsed power and firing systems, including electronic safe-and-arm devices (ESADs), with SPICE/MATLAB circuit simulation, lab bring-up, and environmental testing in Rio Rancho, NM.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Rio Rancho, United States
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Category
- Hardware
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field
- 5+ years designing and validating pulsed power, high-voltage, or firing system electronics for aerospace, defense, or 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
Full description
Castelion was founded to restore America’s ability to field advanced weapons at speed and scale. Inspired by the engineering urgency of the WWII and Apollo eras, we combine rapid iteration, vertical integration, and scalable manufacturing to deliver affordable, high-performance strike systems. Our mission: rebuild industrial agility to strengthen national security and outpace evolving threats.
About the Role:
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
Benefits
- Employee Equity: Meaningful equity for
all full-time employees - share value has increased 150x in three years
- Personal Time Off: Four (4) weeks of paid
time off to unplug, reset, and come back sharp—velocity matters,
burnout doesn't
- Company Paid Holidays: Ten (10) company
paid holidays
- Medical: We offer plans at 100% employee
covered and 80% of dependent coverage