Electrical Engineer

About the role

The Electrical Engineer will support the design, architecture, and implementation of high performance electrical systems across a diverse range of projects. They will work alongside a collaborative team of engineers to find and develop the right solutions for the problems at hand and client use case.

Responsibilities

• Drive design efforts for electronic systems, including architecture and implementation details of circuitry and software/firmware
• Perform component selection and trade studies of different implementation options to best generate and satisfy design requirements
• Capture schematics and design PCB layouts, create component symbols and footprints
• Circuit simulation and thermal analysis of designs, including sizing of thermal management systems
• Develop firmware in C/C++ for microcontrollers, or digital design in Verilog HDL for FPGAs
• Write and execute test plans for device validation and performance characterization
• Take ownership of the design, development, testing, and end-to-end technical support for projects
• Assess design risks and develop mitigation strategies
• Create documentation for hardware, software and systems
• Interface with internal teams and external clients to conduct design reviews for hardware/electronic systems and code reviews for software/firmware/HDL

Requirements

• Able to work 40 hours a week on-site in El Segundo, California, or Redmond, Washington
• Eligible to work on ITAR projects
• Bachelor's Degree (Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Math, or related field) or equivalent experience
• 3+ years of applied experience with a demonstrated passion for engineering and technology development
• Excellent written and verbal technical communication skills; ability to explain technical concepts and their implications to non-technical audiences
• Experience in any common ECAD tool, such as Altium Designer, KiCad, Cadence, PADS, EAGLE, etc.
• Experience with C/C++ firmware development or Verilog HDL development
• Experience in modeling, simulation, and testing of electronics
• Familiarity with standard digital communication methods including serial / UART, SPI, and I2C
• Expertise with one or more of the following: analog circuits, mixed-signal designs, embedded programming, RF, power electronics, or optical systems development

Preferred Requirements

• Experience in team-based design and build projects (e.g., Formula SAE, Solar Car, CubeSat, Rover Challenge, etc.)
• End-to-end electronics design experience: taking designs from requirements generation through schematic, layout, fabrication, and hardware bringup
• Knowledge of analog small-signal circuit design (filters, op-amp circuits, signal conditioning) and/or power electronics designs: regulators, load drivers, supply filters, protection circuitry
• Familiarity with PCB fabrication and assembly process, design for manufacture and design for assembly (DFM / DFA), familiarity with IPC and/or JEDEC standards
• Experience interfacing with PCB and assembly vendors to have designs fabricated
• Large-format or high-density or high-layer-count PCB design experience, preferably for aerospace, automotive, medical, or other high-reliability applications
• Expertise with Altium Designer or KiCad
• Familiarity with Python and/or MATLAB for data parsing and signal analysis
• Familiarity with LTSpice for circuit simulation
• Experience with a range of ARM Cortex-M devices (e.g., STM32, NXP S32K, TI TMS570, etc.) and Lattice or Xilinx FPGAs
• Excellent understanding of OS fundamentals (e.g., schedulers, memory management, network stacks, file system architectures, etc.) and computer architecture or digital design fundamentals
• Experience with continuous integration and testing (CI/CD) or related high-reliability software development strategies

Pay & Benefits

• Salary range dependent on leveling
• Engineer I: $100,000 - $130,000
• Engineer II: $125,000 - $170,000
• Senior Engineer: $155,00 - $200,000
• Equity (via ISOs) in Second Order Effects, Inc.
• Equity (via PIUs) in our incubated companies (through our holding company, Second Order Holdings, LLC)
• 100% employer-paid health insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision) for employees + 50% dependent coverage
• Flexible paid time off policy + 11 paid holidays + 12 paid sick days
• 401(k) retirement account and employer matching (Safe Harbor 4%)
• Up to 22 weeks of paid parental leave dedicated to new child bonding
• Relocation assistance available if 50+ miles away from the office
• Electric Vehicle (EV) charging ports at our LAX office
• Daily catered lunches, snacks, and accessible kitchen