Principal, Hardware Engineer

We need a Principal Hardware Engineer to bring senior technical judgment across Archimedes hardware. You are a highly experienced builder who has seen systems go the full way. From a working prototype to hardware that ships and survives in the field. You've done it more than once. You know where systems break, where teams get stuck, and how to keep both moving. This is a technical leadership seat, not a people management seat. Your role is to raise the level of the hardware org through experience, architectural judgment, and hands-on execution. You lead by example, you unblock hard problems, and you set the technical bar for how hardware gets designed and shipped at Aurelius.

Responsibilities

• Architectural direction across the hardware stack from mechanical, electrical, power, to embedded integration
• Technical decisions on the hardest problems, from concept through production readiness
• Pattern recognition and technical review like surfacing risk early, and catching what junior engineers miss
• Handson execution when the problem needs your specific experience to solve fast
• Design and manufacturing trades across cost, mass, reliability, schedule, and field performance
• Cross-team judgment when hardware, controls, optics, and software collide
• Setting the technical bar for design reviews, documentation quality, and release standards
• Mentorship by example. Engineers should learn from watching you work, not from being managed by you

Requirements

• 10+ years designing and shipping complex hardware systems
• Track record taking systems the full development cycle from prototype through manufacturing and deployment
• Senior IC or technical leadership background at hardware companies that actually shipped
• Deep technical judgment across at least two of: mechanical, electrical, power electronics, embedded systems
• Pattern recognition from having built real systems before, especially systems that had to survive real-world conditions
• Comfort operating as the technical anchor on a small team, not the manager of a large one

Nice to have

• Directed energy, laser, or high-power systems experience
• Defense or aerospace program experience with MIL-STD or equivalent qualification
• Founder or founding engineer background at a hardware company
• Manufacturing depth as-in you've stood up production lines or worked closely with the manufacturers who do
• Active security clearance or ability to obtain one

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity
• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible 18 days PTO plus 5 sick days
• Travel to field test events and range days
• Covered daily lunches and office snacks and drinks
• E-bike and scooter stipend up to $500
• Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work