Job Description
Job Title: Electrical Engineer
Focus;
- Drive By Wire
- Carrier Board (FPGA, facing cameras)
- Digital Electronics, Domain Controller (Compute Box)
Headcount: 7
YoE: 5+ yrs
Location / Travel: San Francisco, CA
Team/Department: Electrical / Hardware [Transport]
Reporting to: Tom Mulroy,
Reason for hiring: Needs to build our own electronics to power the software that runs and drives the car
Offer Visa Sponsorship: Yes
Selling:
- All products you design will be installed on the first fleet of vehicles deployed in the real world for testing, at a high volume before end of the year.
Immediate Projects:
Drive By Wire
- Designing components on Squid board (PCB circuit board), vehicle DBW interface
- Steering interface board, same idea as above
- Power distribution systems (power system design)
Carrier Board, Compute
- New Generation Compute System
Responsibilities
Drive By Wire
Vehicle Interface & Controls
- Analyze and document CAN bus, J1939, Analog and direct digital signals, direct signaling, and vehicle-specific communication protocols on heavy equipment
- Create comprehensive technical documentation for electrical interfaces and vehicle control systems
- Document electrical schematics, pinouts, and signal specifications for integration points
Drive-by-Wire System Development
- Design and implement custom circuit boards for electronic and actuator-based vehicle operation
- Implement fail-safe mechanisms and redundant control pathways for safety-critical systems
- Work with cross-team engineers to design custom wiring harnesses and connector solutions for harsh industrial environments
General
Advanced PCB Design
- Design multi-layer motherboards for compute units handling real-time control systems
- Implement high-speed differential signaling for camera interfaces, GNSS, and LiDAR signaling
- Design mixed-signal circuits combining power electronics with sensitive sensor processing
- Adhere to high standards for signal robustness and DFA
Hardware Testing & Documentation
- Document testing requirements for environmental durability and system reliability of hardware components
- Design and build hardware test apparatus for validation and troubleshooting
- Support quality assurance processes and technical documentation standards
Integration & Deployment Support
- Support field installations and troubleshoot hardware issues at customer sites
- Work closely with software and mechanical teams to optimize system integration
- Collaborate with team members to develop tight system interfaces in a rapid iteration environment
Tools/Technologies/Tech Stack:
Must Have:
- Designing circuit boards
- Schematic Design and Layout
- ECAD, Schematic capture and layout
- Common Electrical Tools (multi multimeter, Oscilloscope)
Nice to Have:
- Radar, LiDAR, Sensors, Camera Interfaces
- DFM (Design for Manufacturing)
- Testing & QA
Ideal Background: Automotive or vehicle systems (including drones)
Ideal Education: Electrical Engineering
Individual roadmap:
Growth potential:
Companies to Target:
- Tesla
- SpaceX
- Humanoid potentially
- Zoox, Cruise, Waymo, Nuro etc
- Zipline, Skydio
- Defense startups
- NO Defense conglomerates like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, etc. (avoid in general - tend to be slow and process driven)
Have you hired for this kind of role in the past?
- Challenges?
- What’s worked, what hasn't?
- What did you like, what should we stay away from?
Any technical qualification questions with black & white answers the recruiter can use to vet?
- Q: Have you designed a PCB? What did it do? Was it for work or a hobby? What ECAD software did you use?
