The Role:
As an Electrical Engineer, you will support the design, architecture, and implementation of high performance electrical systems across a diverse range of projects. You will work alongside a collaborative team of engineers to find and develop the right solutions for the problems at hand and client use case. If you’re passionate about tackling mission-critical challenges and working across multiple industries, this is your chance to make a lasting impact and grow in a dynamic environment.
Key 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
Minimum 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
- Experience with analog small-signal circuit design (filters, op-amp circuits, signal conditioning) and/or power electronics designs: regulators, load drivers, supply filters, protection circuitry
- Knowledge of 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
Compensation & 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