Perception Hardware Integration Engineer

• Own the seeker hardware system across prototype development, integration, testing, and production scaling.
• Assemble and integrate optical sensors, LWIR/MWIR thermal imaging units, compute boards, custom optics, IMUs, and wiring harnesses into complete seeker packages.
• Perform advanced calibration, including NUC, radiometric calibration, bad-pixel mapping, and boresight alignment across multiple seeker systems in parallel.
• Participate in bi-weekly flight tests in Mojave, analyzing flight data and driving rapid mechanical/optical redesign cycles.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to ensure environmental qualification, reliability, and production readiness.

• 8-15 years of hands-on integration experience with electro-optical systems, thermal imaging (LWIR/MWIR), or defense sensor hardware.
• Demonstrated ability to take optical hardware from CAD (Siemens NX) through prototype build, environmental qualification, and flight test.
• Proficiency in Python for test automation and hardware bring-up.
• Comfortable working on-site in El Segundo/Los Angeles with regular desert travel.
• US Citizen or Green Card (no visa sponsorship).

Technical Environment

• Electro-optical cameras, custom optics, compute modules, IMUs, power distribution
• Siemens NX (CAD), GD&T
• LWIR/MWIR thermal imaging
• NUC, radiometric calibration, boresight alignment
• Test automation, FPA characterization

We are a fast-growing, venture-backed defense technology startup addressing America’s interceptor missile production shortage. With $30M raised across pre-seed and seed rounds, our team designs, builds, and flight-tests real missile hardware on an aggressive two-week cadence. To date, we’ve completed 20+ rocket flight tests, operating with the speed and execution of a modern hardware startup.