---
title: 'Electrical Engineer at Aurelius Systems'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-rvn5yvayjsd5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Electrical Engineer at Aurelius Systems

- **Company:** Aurelius Systems
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $130k–$170k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-08
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems/d29c7f05-ec8b-4144-aa33-b944aea2c5ad

## Job description

Who We Are: Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system. Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate — small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range. The Role & Your Impact: We need an Electrical Engineer who can own a wide surface area of electromechanical hardware. You won't specialize in one subsystem, you'll move across power, embedded control, wire harnesses, and integration work, wherever the team needs horsepower. That means you're soldering prototypes one day, pulling harnesses the next, and helping integrate subsystems on the range the week after. This isn't a narrow role. It's a force multiplier position on a small team building a weapon system from scratch. What You'll Own:

- Design and build high-voltage DC/DC converters, rectifiers, inverters, and diode driver electronics (48V+ systems)
- Architect and validate battery management systems from safe charge/discharge, thermal management, to fault protection for high-voltage battery packs
- Build ruggedized wire harnesses for high-power laser and motor systems (connector selection, routing, environmental protection)
- Drive hands-on prototyping, assembly, and field testing of power electronic systems on our range
- Design embedded control electronics like microcontrollers, FPGAs, sensing, telemetry, and fault handling
- Perform electrical simulations (SPICE, MATLAB/Simulink) to optimize performance before you build
- Conduct DFM reviews and work directly with fabricators to get designs into production
- Integrate electronics with mechanical, optical, and robotics subsystems
- Generate schematics, BOMs, wiring diagrams, and documentation meeting MIL-STD and ITAR requirements

What We're Looking For:

- 2–5+ years working across electrical hardware from power, embedded, to systems integration
- Hands-on experience with 48V+ systems. You've built and tested high-voltage circuits, not just reviewed drawings
- Comfortable with embedded control electronics like microcontrollers, sensing, telemetry, and fault handling
- You've designed and fabricated wire harnesses for real systems
- Multi-layer PCB design, IC selection, and on-board thermal management
- Proficient in Altium Designer, SPICE, and MATLAB/Simulink
- Broad curiosity. You're as comfortable debugging a harness as reading a power schematic

Where you probably come from: Robotics labs, EV companies, aerospace hardware teams, defense programs, or Formula SAE Electric. You don't have to be a power specialist, but you need to have built real things at voltage. Not a fit if: Your experience is exclusively low-voltage microcontroller or PCB work, or you've never physically built and tested hardware above 48V.

Nice-to-Haves:

- Experience with laser diode driving or directed energy power systems
- Background in EMI/EMC design and shielding
- Familiarity with MIL-STD standards and ITAR compliance
- Experience with long-duration system deployment in harsh environments
- Active security clearance or ability to obtain one

Education: BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or related field. What you've built matters more than where you went to school. How You Operate:

- Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month
- Rigorous testing mindset. You characterize your own systems before the field does
- Comfortable with ambiguity and fast, constantly iterating in a startup environment
- Your brain only releases dopamine when you're building
- You debug from first principles, not Stack Overflow
- Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and ML teams
- Self-directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

Why Join Aurelius Systems?

- Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.
- Career velocity is real. Erick Brito went from Founding Robotics Engineer to Lead in 12 months. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact… or between you and your next title.
- Work on a problem that actually matters. Small, cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer. Think infinite magazine, cost-per-shot near zero, scalable to every base, border, facility, truck and infrastructure.
- Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built. You'll be in the room with the people reshaping how America builds weapons.

How We Work: Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up — nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. Benefits:

- Competitive salary + equity
- United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days
- Travel to field test events and range days
- Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks
- E-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)
- Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Export Control Notice: This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

## About Aurelius Systems

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Aurelius Systems builds autonomous, directed-energy laser systems to neutralize drone threats for military and defense applications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, CA, USA
- **Founded**: Not publicly available (likely 2024 or early 2025 based on funding timeline)
- **Founders**: Michael LaFramboise (CEO, Co-Founder), John Marmaduke (CTO, Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing (Directed Energy / Counter-UAS)
- **Target customers**: Military and defense organizations (DoD, allied nations) needing scalable, cost-effective defense against unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Build the future of defense with autonomous directed energy built to stop drone threats at the speed of light, for the cost of electricity, anywhere they appear."

## Products & Services
- **[Archimedes]**: An autonomous counter-UAS laser defense system. Combines high-power directed energy lasers, advanced optical sensors, and AI-driven autonomy to detect, track, and neutralize aerial threats in seconds. Designed for field-portability, rapid deployment, and operation in a networked "defense grid" formation.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $10.0M in total funding (Seed round, closed October 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: General Catalyst (lead), Draper Associates (lead), and 9 other unnamed investors. The company has also been selected by the U.S. Army for testing (T-REX 26-2 exercise).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew +187.5% year-over-year (to ~16 employees). 17 active job postings (monthly postings up +13.3%, quarterly +240%). Demonstrated live field performance at a major U.S. Army exercise in June 2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cost-per-kill advantage**: Directed energy lasers fire for the cost of electricity (dollars per shot) vs. traditional missile-based counter-UAS systems that cost "hundreds of thousands per kill."
- **Full autonomy**: The system uses machine learning and optical sensing to detect and engage threats without requiring a human operator to watch a screen — a stated differentiator from other solutions on the market.
- **Speed of light engagement**: Neutralizes threats in seconds, not minutes.
- **COTS-based hardware**: Built on commercial off-the-shelf components for lower cost, faster production, and easier maintenance.
- **Field-proven**: Successfully demonstrated in adverse weather during the T-REX 26-2 exercise.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the company and its manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand from the U.S. military and allied nations.
- Deploying a networked defense grid of multiple Archimedes units for persistent, scalable protection of forces, facilities, and critical infrastructure.
- Continuing rapid R&D iterations driven by real-world field testing.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven work**: Directly contribute to protecting warfighters and critical assets — "build something that matters."
- **Fast-paced, small team culture**: Described as a small team that moves fast, tests in the field, and owns the full lifecycle from R&D to deployment.
- **Early-stage impact**: With only ~16 employees, new hires will have outsized influence and responsibility on the core product.
- **Location**: Based in San Francisco, CA — one of the few defense companies in a city built for tech talent.
- **Benefits**: Full medical, dental, and vision (United Healthcare), 18 days PTO + flexible sick days + 2-week winter break, daily catered lunch + stocked snacks, commuter stipend (up to $500 toward e-bike/scooter), on-site gym, and professional development reimbursement.
- **Work model**: In-office presence (San Francisco HQ). No hybrid/remote-first policy stated.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on building hard things quickly, robotics, photonics, mechanical engineering, and AI/ML autonomy.

## Sources
1. [aureliussystems.com](https://www.aureliussystems.com/)
2. [aureliussystems.com/careers](https://www.aureliussystems.com/careers)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems)
4. [linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems)
5. [aureliussystems.com/leadership](https://www.aureliussystems.com/leadership)

## Other roles at Aurelius Systems

- [Lead, Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-forward-deployed-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-ge2mknde6mwp) — San Francisco, CA
- [Technical Recruiter](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-5gby28xsfxn6) — San Francisco, CA
- [Perception Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/perception-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-xfb0j0b71s8c) — San Francisco, CA
- [Principal, Hardware Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-hardware-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-7ngv4y53at3v) — San Francisco, CA
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-b663msw1yfxm) — San Francisco, CA
- [Digital Marketing Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/digital-marketing-specialist-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-46kaa74pdp48) — San Francisco, CA
- [Operations Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/operations-specialist-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-zraphew450xc) — San Francisco, CA
- [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-z17cgny0aba5) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sr. Optical Engineer, R&D](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-optical-engineer-r-d-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-0kacrfmehv7b) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sr. Robotics Software Engineer, Controls](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-robotics-software-engineer-controls-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-yfydw5rp3nj6) — San Francisco, CA