{"id":696522,"url":"https://alion.io/job/aureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer","title":"Principal Hardware Engineer","company":{"id":669079,"name":"Aurelius Systems","domain":"aureliussystems.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/aureliussystems","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":11,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":72,"computed_at":"2026-11-01T06:10:25Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":235000,"max":305000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":305000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-07T02:35:38Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-07","last_verified_at":"2026-11-01T07:23:33Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":86,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":86},"description":"Who We Are:\nAurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.\nWe're a small team of engineers, former US military, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.\nOur namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.\nIn addition to our San Francisco lab, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.\nThe Role and Your Impact:\nWe need a Principal Hardware Engineer to bring senior technical judgment across Archimedes hardware. You're a highly experienced builder who has taken systems the full way, from working prototype to hardware that ships and survives in the field, more than once. You know where systems break, where teams get stuck, and how to keep both moving.\nYou'll own hardware architecture across the whole system, lead its integration with electrical, power, embedded and optics, and partner with the engineering leadership on architecture and roadmap.\nWhat You'll Own:\nHardware architecture across the full system and its integration with electrical, power, embedded, and optics\n\nTechnical decisions on the hardest problems, from concept through production readiness\n\nRelease and production process for hardware, with our Detroit manufacturing hub\n\nPattern recognition and technical review: surfacing risk early and catching what others miss\n\nHands-on execution when the problem needs your specific experience to solve fast\n\nDesign and manufacturing trades across cost, mass, reliability, schedule, and field performance\n\nThe technical bar for design reviews, documentation, and release standards\n\nMentorship by example. Engineers learn from watching you work, not from being managed by you\n\nWhat We're Looking For:\n10+ years designing and shipping complex hardware systems\n\nTrack record taking systems the full cycle from prototype through manufacturing and deployment, more than once\n\nSenior IC or technical leadership background at hardware companies that actually shipped\n\nDeep mechanical expertise plus real judgment in at least one of electrical, power electronics, or embedded\n\nSystems that had to survive real-world conditions\n\nComfort being the technical anchor on a small team, not the manager of a large one\n\nWhere you probably come from: Defense hardware, aerospace, F1 and high-performance automotive, maritime, robotics hardware, or directed energy programs.\nWe want to talk if: You've been the person a hardware team leaned on to get a system from prototype to production, and you still like doing the hardest part yourself.\nNot a fit if: You're a people manager without recent hands-on work, your experience is purely consumer, or you've spent your career on one narrow subcomponent.\nNice to Haves:\nDirected energy, laser or high-power systems\n\nDefense or aerospace program experience with MIL-STD or equivalent qualification\n\nFounder or founding engineer background at a hardware company\n\nManufacturing depth: you've stood up production lines or worked closely with the manufacturers who do\n\nActive security clearance or ability to obtain one\n\nEducation:\nBS, MS or PhD in Mechanical, Aerospace or related field. What you've built matters more than where you went to school.\nHow You Operate:\nExtreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month\n\nYou characterize your own systems before the field does\n\nComfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment\n\nYou debug from first principles, not intuition alone\n\nClear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and software teams\n\nSelf directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told\n\nWhy Join Aurelius Systems:\nBuild more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.\n\nCareer velocity is real. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact.\n\nWork on a problem that actually matters. Small cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer - infinite magazine, near zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck.\n\nJoin the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.\n\nHow We Work:\nCore hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up - nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show.\nBenefits:\nCompetitive salary and equity\n\nUnited Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage\n\nFlexible 18 days PTO plus 5 sick days\n\nTravel to field test events and range days\n\nCovered daily lunches and office snacks and drinks\n\nE-bike and scooter stipend up to $500\n\nDirect access to leadership and real ownership over your work\n\nExport Control Notice:\nThis role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require U.S. Person status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a U.S. Person: (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).","description_format":"text","description_chars":5651,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Air Defense","Defense Manufacturing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T02:06:34Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":36,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.659,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":86,"expected_fill_days":72,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-01T06:10:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":305000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/aureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/aureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-01T11:01:26Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":17019,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-02T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":669079},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=669079"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Faureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Faureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Faureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/aureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Faureliussystems-principal-hardware-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":696522}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"aureliussystems.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":696522},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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