Electrical Engineer – Unmanned Systems & Ground Penetrating Radar

About the role

This role focuses on system-level electrical engineering, including printed circuit board (PCB) design, subsystem integration, RF and digital electronics, and support of fielded systems. You will contribute to the development, integration, and testing of advanced sensing and autonomous platforms, with job scope that spans the full engineering lifecycle, including design, fabrication, integration, test, and deployment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and test printed circuit boards (PCBs), including schematic capture and layout using industry-standard tools (e.g., Altium Designer).
• Architect and integrate electrical subsystems for large ground vehicle platforms, unmanned aerial systems, and GPR systems.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to ensure effective integration of electrical, mechanical, and software components.
• Develop and maintain engineering documentation, including schematics, PCB layouts, fabrication and assembly drawings, and technical reports.
• Manage interactions with PCB fabrication and assembly vendors to support prototyping and production.
• Perform board bring-up, debugging, rework, and validation testing of electrical systems and components.
• Analyze test data, troubleshoot system issues, and iterate on designs to improve performance and reliability.
• Support system integration, field testing, and deployment activities at LLNL and external sites.
• Apply standard engineering and project management practices to plan and execute assigned work.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. DOE Q-level security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship.
• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or related field, or equivalent combination of education and related experience.
• Experience in PCB design, including schematic capture and layout using tools such as Altium Designer.
• Experience with electrical system integration, including cabling design and subsystem interfacing.
• Experience with board bring-up, debugging, rework, and test using standard laboratory equipment (e.g., power supplies, multimeters, oscilloscopes).
• Fundamental knowledge of power electronics, high-speed digital design, or FPGA interfacing.
• Experience performing failure analysis and troubleshooting of electronic systems.
• Experience working effectively in multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Sufficient verbal and written communication skills necessary to collaborate with team members and present technical information.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering or related field (desired).
• Experience with unmanned or autonomous systems, including drone electrical integration (e.g., power distribution, flight controllers, batteries, ESCs).
• Experience with RF systems or ground penetrating radar, including RF PCB design, signal integrity, or test methods (e.g., VNA, time-domain analysis).
• Experience with FPGA-based digital design or embedded systems (e.g., HDL development, custom data pipelines, embedded Linux).

Skills

• Structured engineering or project management practices.

Benefits

• Flexible schedules (*depending on project needs)

Pay

$121,830 - $185,544 Annually $121,830 - $154,500 Annually for the SES.1 level $146,340 - $185,544 Annually for the SES.2 level

Schedule

Hybrid schedule, blending in-person and virtual presence.