**Founding PCB Engineer - Radar Seekers for Interceptors**
**What we do**
Vernius builds 24 GHz phased array radar seekers for interceptors that defend against Shahed-class strike drones, the threat hitting Ukraine every night and increasingly facing the US and its allies. In your first 30 days, you will finalize the PCB layout for our V2 interceptor radar seeker; by day 90, you will be overseeing the first batch of 1,000 boards through the assembly line.
**The scale**
The PCBs you ship will be deployed on over 10,000 interceptors every month. We're integrating with the largest interceptor manufacturers in Ukraine, with pilots planned across multiple frontline formations, including one of Ukraine's largest army corps and a dedicated unmanned systems brigade. A board you finish this month can be in the field the next.
**Team**
We're three founders who've shipped hardware and software where failure isn't an option: Hisham El-Halabi put a satellite in low Earth orbit, Joseph Gonzalez built the mission planning software for the US Navy's Tomahawk fleet, and Arthur Nguyen-Cao ran engineering at Defense Tech for Ukraine, shipping FPV hardware to frontline operators. Arthur and Hisham previously founded an AI smart glasses company covered by The Verge. Between us we have over a decade of hardware experience, and we're building the seeker that’s going on tens of thousands of interceptors a month.
We're backed by former US National Security Advisor LTG H.R. McMaster, in addition to UA1, Pioneer Fund, Rebel Fund, and Palm Drive Capital.
**The role**
The array design, components, and BOM are done. We need someone to own the PCB from schematic to working board, and to get a 24 GHz phased array into a small, cheap form factor that can be built at tens of thousands of units a month.
* Own the entire PCB design process: schematic, layout, stackup, DFM. First-pass yield and spin count are yours.
* Work with our simulation team to close the loop between EM and thermal results and layout.
* Build our in-house AI tooling for PCB design, with the long-term goal of a pipeline that generates and validates boards with very little human time.
**Who we're hiring**
A small core team of founding engineers who ship prototypes fast and want to build the automation that makes the next one faster. We hire slowly and for the long term. We’re looking to bring a small handful of people who each own a large piece of the product.
**Requirements**
* RF PCB design experience
* Shipped at least one ambitious self-directed PCB project on an aggressive timeline
* US citizen
**Bonus**
* Shipped radar or phased array PCBs
* Former founder or founding engineer at a hardtech, space, defense, or aerospace startup
* Published research, or shipped PCBs at scale
* Willing to travel to Ukraine
**Tech Stack**
* KiCad or Altium (required)
* Ansys HFSS (bonus)
* OpenEMS (bonus)
Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
