Avionics Engineer

As an Avionics Engineer, you will define, integrate, and verify the electronic systems of guided aerospace vehicles. You will take ownership of avionics subsystems from requirements to flight hardware, and contribute to the overall avionics architecture. You will work with the GNC, embedded software, systems, propulsion, mechanical, and test teams to turn mission needs into avionics that operate correctly on real vehicles.

At Destinus, we develop advanced unmanned aerial vehicles for demanding defense and aerospace applications. Our teams work across aircraft design, avionics, propulsion, software, testing, and operations to deliver high-performance systems for mission-critical use. Join us to help build practical, reliable technology for next-generation aerospace platforms.

What You’ll Do

• Architecture - Contribute to the hardware and software architecture of the vehicle avionics. Make trade-offs between performance, mass, volume, power, cost, reliability, and schedule.
• Requirements - Write and maintain avionics requirements. Derive them from vehicle and mission requirements, trace them to the design, and support their verification.
• Component selection - Select electronic components and avionics units. Evaluate performance, environmental ratings, availability, lifecycle, and supply chain risk.
• Power - Define the power needs of the avionics. Design power distribution, conversion, protection, and management, and maintain the power budget.
• Subsystem integration - Integrate the avionics with existing subsystems such as the flight computer, seekers, IMUs, actuators, and sensors. Define and control the electrical and data interfaces between them.
• Telemetry and communication - Define the telemetry and communication systems. Select the hardware, data links, and protocols for vehicle, ground, and test use.
• Interconnect and harness - Design the vehicle interconnect and harness. Select connectors, wires, and shielding, and make sure the design meets EMC, mechanical, and environmental requirements.
• Verification and testing - Plan and do bench, integration, HIL, and environmental tests. Find and correct faults on real hardware.
• Documentation and reviews - Write ICDs, design documents, and test procedures. Present and contribute to design reviews.
• Flight test support - Support vehicle integration, flight-test preparation, and field operations when required.

Requirements

What You’ll Need

• Experience - 2 or more years of professional experience in avionics, electronics, or embedded hardware development, preferably in aerospace, defense, automotive, or a similar industry.
• Avionics architecture - Hands-on experience to define or contribute to avionics architectures for aircraft, UAVs, missiles, launch vehicles, or similar systems.
• Requirements engineering - Experience to write, decompose, and trace requirements through design and verification.
• Electronics design - Strong knowledge of analog and digital electronics. Able to read and review schematics and PCB designs. Altium experience is a plus.
• Component selection - Experience to select components for harsh environments, including derating, temperature, vibration, and shock.
• Power systems - Experience with DC/DC conversion, batteries, power distribution, protection circuits, and power budgets.
• Interfaces and protocols - Practical experience with CAN-FD, Ethernet, RS-422/RS-485, SPI, I2C, and UART. Experience with RF data links is a plus.
• Harness and connectors - Experience with harness design and connector selection, for example MIL-DTL-38999 or Micro-D. Knowledge of shielding, grounding, and EMC design.
• Lab skills - Comfortable with oscilloscopes, power supplies, logic analyzers, multimeters, and protocol analyzers. Python for test automation is a plus.
• Mindset - Structured, detail-oriented, and comfortable in a fast-moving, cross-disciplinary engineering environment.
• Education - Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electronics, or equivalent.