Senior Principal Electrical Engineer

Role Overview: 

CHAOS is seeking a Sr. Principal Electrical Engineer with expertise in digital circuit design and signal integrity analysis to serve as a technical authority for high-reliability digital electronics used in aerospace and military applications. This role spans the full product lifecycle, from early architecture and requirements shaping through detailed design, analysis, verification, production support, and fielded system sustainment. 

The ideal candidate is a senior digital hardware technical authority with deep high-speed board design, signal integrity, and power integrity expertise; a track record of setting design direction across programs; and the ability to guide cross-disciplinary teams through ambiguous, high-consequence hardware challenges. 

This is a full-time, on-site position in Hawthorne, CA. 

 
Responsibilities: 

• Act as a technical authority for high-speed digital circuit design, signal integrity, and power integrity across multiple programs or product lines 

• Lead design and review of complex PCBAs involving FPGAs, processors, memory devices, data converters, clocks, high-speed serial interfaces, and mixed-signal boundaries 

• Lead digital hardware architecture trades and define design approaches that satisfy system performance, schedule, manufacturability, reliability, and qualification requirements 

• Set standards, procedures, and review practices for digital board design, stack-up definition, layout constraints, SI/PI analysis, bring-up, and verification 

• Resolve complex cross-disciplinary technical issues involving digital hardware, FPGA/software interfaces, RF coexistence, power distribution, EMI/EMC, thermal behavior, and mechanical packaging 

• Guide PCB layout strategy for controlled impedance, length matching, return paths, grounding, shielding, decoupling, power distribution networks, and isolation of sensitive circuits 

• Serve as the senior technical interface with customers, vendors, suppliers, and internal program leadership for digital hardware topics 

• Mentor engineers and coordinate technical activities across digital, FPGA, embedded software, RF, power, mechanical, manufacturing, and test teams 

• Serve as technical authority for hardware integration, verification, qualification testing, production transition, failure analysis, and field support 

Minimum Requirements: 

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering with 15+ years of relevant engineering experience 

• Demonstrated technical leadership of complex high-speed digital hardware 

• Strong understanding of digital design fundamentals, including timing, clocking, controlled impedance, signal integrity, power integrity, grounding, decoupling, and return-path management 

• Extensive experience with digital board design involving FPGAs, processors, memory devices, high-speed data converters, and board-level communication interfaces 

• Experience setting PCB layout strategy and design review criteria for high-speed digital, mixed-signal, and high-reliability electronics 

• Hands-on experience leading board bring-up, system integration, troubleshooting, verification, qualification, production transition, and failure analysis activities 

• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and lead engineers through ambiguous, cross-disciplinary hardware challenges 

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance 

Preferred Requirements: 

• Advanced Degree (MS or PhD) in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Physics, Mathematics or related discipline 

• Experience with Avionics platforms 

• Experience using Altium Designer 

• Expertise with signal integrity and/or power integrity analysis tools such as HyperLynx, Sigrity, ADS, Ansys SIwave, or equivalent 

• Experience with DDR, PCIe, Ethernet, JESD204, SERDES, LVDS, or similar high-speed interfaces in high-reliability systems 

• Familiarity with EMI/EMC mitigation techniques and aerospace standards such as RTCA/DO-160, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-810, and MIL-STD-1275 

• Experience establishing design standards, analysis templates, qualification approaches, or review processes for engineering teams 

• Experience designing for manufacturability and leading transition from prototype hardware to production 

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 250 employees and counting across 5 global offices

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. 

Recruiting Agencies: CHAOS Industries does not accept unsolicited resumes or outreach. Unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed or compensated.

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