Principal Electrical Engineer
Neon Aerospace · Irvine
Aerospace is at a turning point — costs are rising, supply chains are strained, and old ways of building can’t keep up. At Neon Aero, we’re breaking that mold. We move fast, think big, and combine start-up agility with aerospace expertise to design, build, and scale aircraft in ways the industry has never seen. Our team leverages automation, AI-driven tools, and a fully connected digital backbone to accelerate innovation and reduce barriers to production.
Here, you won’t just take a job — you’ll help reinvent how the world flies. If you’re ready to solve complex problems, push technology further, and work alongside some of the brightest minds in aerospace, this is your chance to make a real impact.
We are seeking a Principal Electrical Engineer to provide technical leadership in the architecture, design, and qualification of high-integrity electronic control systems across Neon's product portfolio.
This role is focused on the controller and system-electronics side of the architecture: command/monitor architecture, flight control computers and LRUs, embedded compute, sensing, communications, fault detection, redundancy, and the electrical interfaces that tie complex products together. It is complementary to our Principal Engineer – High Voltage Power Electronics role, which owns high-voltage motor-drive and power-stage design.
This is a deeply hands-on individual contributor role. You will develop system architectures, block diagrams, schematics, interface definitions, safety concepts, and the analysis behind them. You will work directly with embedded software, motor control, systems, mechanical, power electronics, test, manufacturing, and certification teams to bring high-reliability electronic systems from concept through qualification and production.
This role does not require direct people management, but it requires principal-level technical leadership, mentoring, and ownership of difficult cross-functional decisions.
Why This Role Matters
- Own electrical system architecture for high-integrity controller electronics, FCCs, LRUs, actuator controllers, avionics/compute platforms, sensing systems, and related embedded hardware.
- Architect command/monitor, active-active, simplex, duplex, or other redundant control architectures based on system safety, integrity, availability, and cost requirements.
- Define partitioning between command processors, monitoring processors, motor-control electronics, power electronics, sensors, communications, and vehicle-level interfaces.
- Translate system requirements and safety objectives into practical electronic architectures, hardware requirements, interface definitions, and verification strategies.
- Select microcontrollers, processors, FPGAs, memories, communication devices, supervisors, watchdogs, isolation components, and sensor interfaces appropriate for high-reliability applications.
- Design and review embedded digital, analog, and mixed-signal electronics, including low-voltage power supplies, power sequencing, reset architecture, discrete I/O, signal conditioning, protection, and health monitoring.
- Architect fault detection, fault containment, redundancy management, cross-monitoring, heartbeat, synchronization, and safe-state mechanisms.
- Define communication architecture and physical layers for interfaces such as CAN / CAN FD, ARINC 825, ARINC 429, Ethernet, RS-422/485, SPI, and similar embedded or aerospace buses.
- Own electrical interface definitions and collaborate with systems and software teams on ICDs, timing assumptions, diagnostic coverage, degraded modes, and hardware/software partitioning.
- Establish grounding, shielding, isolation, EMI/EMC, signal-integrity, and power-integrity approaches across boards, harnesses, sensors, and enclosures.
- Lead schematic development and critical PCB design reviews using Altium or equivalent ECAD tools.
- Personally perform or direct worst-case circuit analysis, tolerance analysis, derating, signal-integrity analysis, power-budget analysis, and fault analysis.
- Lead board bring-up, system integration, lab debugging, and root-cause investigations for issues spanning hardware, firmware, software, sensors, communications, and power electronics.
- Define hardware verification strategies and support qualification testing for environmental, EMC, electrical power, and fault conditions.
- Support certification-oriented development including requirements traceability, design assurance, configuration control, verification evidence, and hardware change management.
- Drive DFM, DFT, DFA, production test strategy, and manufacturing readiness for controller electronics and LRUs.
- Mentor electrical engineers through architecture reviews, schematic reviews, design analysis, bring-up, and debugging while remaining deeply hands-on.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering or related field; equivalent professional experience may be considered.
- 12+ years of experience developing and shipping complex electronic systems.
- Demonstrated ownership of system-level electrical architecture for embedded control, avionics, industrial control, automotive, robotics, medical, aerospace, or similarly high-reliability products.
- Deep hands-on experience with embedded digital and mixed-signal hardware, including microcontroller-based systems, sensing, communications, and board-level power architecture.
- Strong proficiency with schematic capture and PCB design using Altium or equivalent ECAD tools.
- Strong understanding of processor selection, watchdog and reset architecture, communication interfaces, sensor interfacing, low-voltage power conversion, grounding, isolation, and EMI/EMC.
- Experience designing fault-tolerant or redundant electronic architectures and reasoning about failure detection, fault containment, and safe-state behavior.
- Experience bringing electronic assemblies from concept through prototype, qualification, industrialization, and production.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional technical decisions involving electrical hardware, embedded software, systems engineering, mechanical design, test, manufacturing, and suppliers.
- Strong lab and debugging capability using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, programmable supplies, electronic loads, data acquisition, and related instrumentation.
Preferred Experience
- Command/monitor or other redundant safety-critical controller architectures.
- Flight control computers, actuator controllers, avionics LRUs, embedded compute platforms, sensor interfaces, or vehicle-control electronics.
- DO-254 hardware development experience and familiarity with DAL-driven hardware architecture and verification.
- Familiarity with DO-160, ARP4754A/B, ARP4761, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-704, or comparable safety-critical and environmental standards.
- Experience with CAN / CAN FD, ARINC 825, ARINC 429, Ethernet, RS-422/485, SPI, BiSS, resolver/LVDT interfaces, or similar sensing and communication technologies.
- Experience with safety-oriented or aviation-pedigree microcontrollers and processors.
- FPGA or programmable-logic experience for monitoring, I/O, timing, or safety functions.
- MATLAB, Python, SPICE, or similar tools for analysis, test automation, or data reduction.
- Experience in aerospace, automotive, robotics, consumer hardware, industrial controls, medical devices, or other environments where electronics must be both high-performance and production-ready.
Why Join Us
- Work alongside elite engineering talent and innovators from across aerospace and tech.
- Be part of a team moving faster than the industry standard.
- Shape solutions that are lower-cost, autonomous, and scalable: the future of aviation.
- Competitive compensation, including equity participation, growth opportunities, and full health benefits (health, vision, dental, 401(k)) designed to support you in and out of work.
Neon Aero, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable law.
We believe that diverse perspectives drive innovation, and we welcome candidates from all backgrounds to apply.
All final candidates must successfully complete a background check and drug screening as a condition of employment.
At this time, Neon Aero and its divisions are not accepting unsolicited resumes from third-party recruiters or staffing agencies.
More jobs at Neon Aerospace · Hardware & Silicon jobs in Irvine