Avionics Hardware Engineer - Senior / Staff | On-site Opportunity | Torrance, CA | Fastwater Staffing

Location: Torrance, CA
Employment Type: Full-Time
Work Arrangement: 100% On-site, Monday–Friday
Start Date: TBD
Compensation: TBD — based on skills and experience

Important Screening Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• Strong experience with complex digital or mixed-signal hardware design.
• Experience with high-speed digital systems, embedded processors, memory interfaces, and board-level architecture.
• Hands-on PCB design and hardware bring-up experience.
• Experience using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and power supplies.
• Experience with board validation, debugging, and root-cause analysis.
• Must be able to work on-site in Torrance, CA.
• U.S. work authorization and export-control eligibility requirements may apply.
• Ability to obtain and maintain applicable U.S. Government security clearance or authorization, if required.

About the Role

We are seeking experienced Avionics Hardware Engineers at the Senior and Staff levels to work on high-speed digital design, flight computer architecture, and advanced avionics hardware.

This role is focused on complex embedded hardware for mission-critical systems, with ownership spanning architecture, board design, bring-up, validation, and integration.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for experienced hardware engineers who can take ownership of complex avionics hardware, solve challenging hardware problems in the lab, and work closely with multidisciplinary teams from architecture through integration.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop advanced board-level electrical hardware, including:
  • Schematic capture
  • PCB layout oversight
  • Component selection
  • Interface definition
• Own high-speed digital and embedded flight computer architectures involving processors, memory systems, and board-level integration.
• Perform board bring-up, validation, debugging, and root-cause analysis in the lab.
• Test reference boards and early prototypes using standard laboratory equipment.
• Drive signal integrity, power integrity, and hardware reliability throughout the design lifecycle.
• Collaborate with avionics, embedded software, test, and manufacturing teams.
• Support hardware/software integration and troubleshooting across avionics platforms.
• Document designs, test results, and engineering changes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• Strong experience designing complex digital or mixed-signal hardware.
• High-speed digital systems experience.
• Experience with embedded processors, memory interfaces, and board-level architecture.
• Experience with PCB design tools; Altium preferred.
• Hands-on experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and power supplies.
• Strong understanding of digital systems, signal integrity, power distribution, and hardware debugging.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with flight computer, avionics, or embedded compute architectures.
• Experience taking complex PCBAs from concept through bring-up, validation, and integration.
• Exposure to embedded systems, firmware, or FPGA interaction.
• Experience in aerospace, automotive, robotics, defense, or other high-reliability hardware environments.
• Familiarity with Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, PCIe, or DDR memory systems.
• Basic scripting or programming experience using Python, C, or C++.