Mechatronics Engineer, Maritime

We are seeking a Mechatronics Engineer with strong PCBA design experience to join our Maritime team at our Costa Mesa HQ, supporting the Dive XL extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle (XLUUV). You will own electronics that live at the seam between software, electrical, and mechanical subsystems , designing, bringing up, and troubleshooting boards that control vehicle payloads, sensors, actuators, and mission-critical subsystems in a pressurized subsea environment.

The role requires high ownership, hands-on instincts, and frequent collaboration with software, systems, mechanical, and test engineers. High growth potential and additional leadership opportunities are available as the program scales.

Key responsibilities include:

• Design PCBAs end-to-end: requirements capture, schematic design, layout review, fabrication, assembly, bringup, and qualifications
• Troubleshoot boards at the bench and in integrated vehicle configurations , isolate failures across electrical, firmware, and mechanical boundaries
• Serve as the technical bridge between software, electrical, and mechanical disciplines , translate subsystem needs into electronics requirements and vice versa
• Design and integrate electro-mechanical subsystems including motor drives, sensors, actuators, and power distribution for subsea operation
• Perform trade studies and physics-based analysis for board architecture, component selection, and thermal/power budgets
• Identify and manage relationships with PCBA fabrication, assembly, and component vendors
• Lead design reviews, define and execute hardware test plans, and transition designs from prototype into production
• Support vehicle integration, at-sea test events, and customer demonstrations as needed
• Travel to test sites, fabrication vendors, and integration facilities as needed
• Use first principles physics as the basis for every decision
• Wear many hats

Required qualifications include:

• 5+ years of electrical / PCBA design experience in a professional setting
• Proficiency in ECAD tools (Altium, KiCad, or equivalent) , schematic capture through layout
• Experience taking PCBAs from concept through bringup, including bare-metal microcontroller design (STMicro, TI, NXP, or similar)
• Familiarity with microcontrollers, power conversion, and system integration
• Ability to read, interpret, and manipulate schematics, wiring diagrams, and PCB layouts
• Experience debugging at both schematic and board level using oscilloscopes, power supplies, electronic loads, and multimeters
• Demonstrated leadership on a complex technical project (collegiate project teams or professional settings)
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to drive work independently across disciplinary boundaries
• High competence with, and fluid use of, engineering first principles
• BS in an engineering field, or equivalent work experience
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

Preferred qualifications include:

• MS in an engineering field
• Active U.S. Top Secret security clearance
• Experience designing electronics for rugged, marine, or pressure-sealed environments
• MCAD experience (NX) and comfort collaborating on enclosure, connector, and harness design
• Hands-on prototyping (soldering, rework, board assembly, harnessing)
• Experience bringing up device trees on embedded Linux systems with a variety of connected sensors
• Experience characterizing circuits at both schematic and board level
• Experience with microcontroller wired communication protocols (USB, MIPI CSI2, SPI, I2C, CAN/CANFD, UART/RS232/RS422/RS485)
• Experience with motor and servo drive design (BLDC / brushed motor controllers, servo control systems)
• Familiarity with wireless and subsea communication protocols (acoustic modems, RF, Ethernet)
• Experience bridging firmware and electrical work-streams , writing or reviewing low-level drivers, bringup scripts, or HIL test infrastructure
• Experience developing complex electronics hardware products (UUVs, UAVs, robotics, propulsion systems, or other complex mechatronic platforms)