PCB Design Engineer, Avionics Hardware

Who We Are

GITAI is a space robotics company working to reduce the cost of work in space by 100x.

Space is no longer defined only by the cost of launch. Satellites, space stations, lunar infrastructure, and defense systems are becoming more capable and more ambitious. But getting hardware to space is only the first step. The harder problem is doing useful work once it is there.

GITAI develops robotic systems for orbital, lunar, and defense applications. Our robots are designed for tasks such as assembly, inspection, maintenance, construction, and surface operations in environments where human labor is expensive, dangerous, or impractical. To move fast and drive cost down, we keep hardware, software, testing, and integration close together. This allows our team to learn from real tests, shorten development cycles, and reduce dependency on slow external handoffs.

We are still early. The systems, the company, and the market are all being built at the same time. The work is difficult, and many answers are still not written down. If the work pulls you in, and you want to move it forward with your own hands, GITAI is the right place for you.

Your Mission

As a PCB Design Engineer, Avionics Hardware at GITAI, you will own board-level electrical hardware design for spacecraft, robotic systems, and space defense programs, including interceptor-related systems.

This is a PCB design and avionics hardware role. It is not primarily an embedded software, firmware, or FPGA role. We are looking for someone who has personally designed real PCBs and taken them through fabrication, assembly, bring-up, and test.

Your work will not stop at the board boundary. GITAI’s hardware is tightly integrated across electrical, mechanical, firmware, software, and system-level constraints. You will work closely with mechanical engineers on packaging, mounting, connectors, harnessing, thermal paths, vibration constraints, and assembly sequence. You will work with firmware and software engineers on interfaces, bring-up, debugging, telemetry, fault handling, and test coverage.

You do not need to come from the space industry. Strong PCB designers from robotics, automotive, medical devices, industrial equipment, drones, defense, consumer hardware, or other hardware fields are welcome. Space-specific requirements can be learned after joining. What matters first is strong board-level design judgment and the ability to make hardware work inside a real system.

GITAI is an early-stage hardware startup. Requirements will change, interfaces will move, and the clean answer on paper will often fail in integration. This role is for someone who can make practical trade-offs, communicate them clearly, and keep the hardware moving from design to build to test to flight-like operation.

What You’ll Drive

Own PCB design for avionics hardware used in spacecraft, robotic systems, and space defense programs, from early architecture through schematic, layout, fabrication release, assembly, bring-up, and test.

Design schematics and PCB layouts in Altium or similar ECAD tools, including stackup definition, layout constraints, design rules, fabrication notes, assembly drawings, and release packages.

Make practical board-level design trade-offs across electrical performance, manufacturability, reliability, thermal behavior, packaging, component availability, testability, schedule, and cost.

Work closely with mechanical engineers on board shape, mounting, connector placement, harness routing, enclosure constraints, thermal paths, vibration constraints, and assembly sequence.

Work closely with firmware and software engineers on interfaces, board bring-up, telemetry, debugging, fault handling, test coverage, and hardware/software integration.

Collaborate with systems, propulsion, and manufacturing teams to ensure avionics hardware works inside the full vehicle or robotic system, not only as a standalone board.

Apply DFM, DFA, and DFT principles early in the design process and work directly with PCB fabrication and assembly vendors to resolve manufacturing issues before and during builds.

Select components with attention to electrical performance, lifecycle risk, lead time, procurement constraints, package size, thermal behavior, derating, and test access.

Bring up and debug PCBAs using lab equipment, test fixtures, firmware tools, and system-level test setups.

Support integration, environmental testing, field testing, and failure investigations by identifying root causes and driving design changes quickly.

Create and maintain clear engineering documentation, including schematics, layout files, BOMs, fabrication packages, assembly notes, test plans, issue logs, and design review materials.

Move hardware forward in an early-stage startup environment where requirements change, interfaces are not always clean, and practical judgment matters more than process.

What We’re Looking For

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a…