---
title: 'Senior Sustaining Electrical Engineer at Firestorm'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-sustaining-electrical-engineer-firestorm-san-diego-9rex9ka8z5w0'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Senior Sustaining Electrical Engineer at Firestorm

- **Company:** Firestorm
- **Location:** San Diego, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/firestorm/am9icG9zdDoSDTuA0SvPfBbIMSWl1YbX

## Job description

## Who We Are

At Firestorm, we’re on a mission to revolutionize how defense solutions are designed and delivered. Our goal is to empower U.S. ally nations to effectively deter aggressors—regardless of their defense budget—through innovative, cost-efficient technologies. We call this vision “democratized deterrence.” As a VC-backed company at the intersection of defense and Silicon Valley, we’re pioneering the development of mission-adaptable aerial vehicles that put power back into the hands of operators. By prioritizing operator effectiveness, we’re pioneering a new era of aerial vehicle design. We aim to upend the traditional defense procurement model by delivering world-class capabilities at a fraction of the usual cost. Join us at Firestorm as we redefine defense procurement, making cutting-edge technology accessible to all at a fraction of the cost.

## About the Role

The Sustaining Electrical Engineer owns released electrical hardware throughout the product lifecycle, spanning PCB and system-level design, production scaling, field support, and continuous improvement. The focus is keeping products reliable, manufacturable, testable, serviceable, and cost-effective as they scale and evolve in the field.

This role is ideal for an engineer with strong technical judgment and hands-on problem-solving skills who enjoys taking ownership of complex hardware and driving ambiguous problems through validated solutions. This position may be filled at the Senior or Staff level based on experience, technical depth, and demonstrated scope of ownership.

## What You’ll Do

- Design and implement electrical changes across schematics, PCBAs, power distribution, wiring, interfaces, and supporting hardware.
- Own electrical sustainment of released products from production ramp through field support and end-of-life, serving as a key technical point of contact for electrical integration.
- Troubleshoot PCBAs, electronic assemblies, wiring, power systems, and integrated hardware down to the component level across production and fielded systems.
- Drive root-cause investigations for production, test, and field failures and implement corrective and preventive actions through analysis, design changes, and validation.
- Own ECR/ECO execution and maintain released design documentation and configuration control within PLM systems, including schematics, BOMs, wiring diagrams, drawings, test procedures, and configuration records.
- Define and execute verification, regression, and reliability testing for sustaining changes, alternate components, and product improvements.
- Support production and NPI transitions by addressing test failures, yield issues, assembly risks, manufacturability, testability, and electrical integration challenges.
- Evaluate component substitutions, obsolescence, and supplier-driven changes, and own the technical qualification of alternate parts and materials.
- Drive electrical system tradeoffs across size, weight, power, EMC, reliability, manufacturability, and integration constraints, including high-power components and distribution architectures.
- Partner with Product Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Customer Support, firmware, software, mechanical, test, and suppliers to improve product quality, reliability, serviceability, and cost.
- Contribute to design reviews and drive continuous improvement across the released product portfolio.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 3+ years of professional experience developing or sustaining complex electrical hardware; level will be determined based on experience and scope of ownership.
- Strong hands-on lab and debugging skills using standard electrical test equipment, with the ability to isolate failures to the circuit or component level.
- Familiarity with hardware configuration control, ECR/ECO workflows, PLM systems, and released-product documentation practices.
- Working knowledge of DFM/DFT, hardware reliability, production test, and the considerations required to transition and sustain hardware at scale.
- Strong fundamentals in analog, digital, and power electronics, with demonstrated experience owning full-cycle PCB development.
- Strong technical communication and cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to manage ambiguity and multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Must be a U.S. Person as defined by applicable U.S. export control laws and regulations.

## Compensation

- Base salary: $130,000 - $145,000
- Equity: Meaningful equity grant in a growth-stage defense technology company

## About Firestorm

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Firestorm is a venture-backed defense technology company building an expeditionary manufacturing ecosystem to produce and sustain modular, mission-adaptable unmanned systems and parts at the point of need.
- **Entity Type**: Private (VC-backed; Series A completed in July 2025)
- **Headquarters**: San Diego, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Dan Magy (CEO), Chad McCoy (CGO), Ian Muceus (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense technology / Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing
- **Target customers**: U.S. Department of Defense, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Navy, Marine Corps, and allied forces (B2G)
- **Mission statement**: “Equip warfighters with mission-critical capabilities at the point of need. Deliver adaptable resilience through uncontestable defense logistics.”

## Products & Services
- **xCELL**: An expeditionary manufacturing unit that uses additive manufacturing (HP Multi-Jet Fusion) to produce high-strength polymer parts in the field. Off-grid, rapidly deployable, with secure communications and HVAC control.
- **TEMPEST**: A modular unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed for production inside the xCELL unit. Configurable payloads for diverse mission sets.
- **SQUALL**: An additively-manufactured first-person view (FPV) platform optimized for xCELL production. “Print. Build. Fly. Dominate.”
- **Repair & Sustainment at the Edge**: On-demand production of replacement parts to keep units operational when resupply is delayed or denied.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$179.5M** across multiple rounds (as of mid-2025). Annual revenue estimated at **$7.6M** (Craft.co).
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: The company has raised from at least 4 investors in the latest Series A ($47M announced July 2025), including debt financing and seed rounds. Specific investors not fully detailed in available sources but include VC firms backing defense tech.
- **Growth Signals**: Employee headcount grew **95.9% YoY** to 127 people; job postings increased **4,400% YoY** (45 active openings). Talent sourced from Northrop Grumman, Shield AI, HP, General Atomics, L3Harris, and others. Awarded PY25.1 STRATFI funding (March 2025) to advance modular unmanned aerial systems.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Expeditionary Manufacturing**: Forward-deployed additive manufacturing reduces dependence on traditional, centralized logistics – a key differentiator for contested environments.
- **Modular Open-Source Architectures**: Platforms designed for rapid configuration and scalability, supporting “Affordable Mass” requirements of the DoD.
- **Vertically Integrated Ecosystem**: Proprietary UAS platforms (Tempest, Squall) are purpose-built for the xCELL production process, creating a tight hardware-software-manufacturing loop.
- **Founding Team**: CEO Dan Magy is a 5-time founder in defense hardware/robotics/AI with a previous exit (Citadel Defense). CGO Chad McCoy is a Tier 1 Special Operations veteran. CTO Ian Muceus is an additive manufacturing subject matter expert from Stratasys.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling expeditionary manufacturing units (xCELL) for field deployment; expanding modular UAS platforms (Tempest, Squall); deepening relationships with Navy, USMC, SOCOM, and CENTCOM; hiring aggressively across engineering, operations, and business development.
- **Direction for growth**: Move from prototype to production at scale, build a network of distributed production assets, and become a prime supplier of affordable, mission-adaptable systems for the DoD.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Build toward a future defined by incontestable defense logistics.” Emphasis on solving hard problems that reshape defense. Flat, mission-driven team of engineers, operators, and problem-solvers.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Mix of in-office (San Diego HQ, Rome NY), hybrid, and fully remote roles depending on position. Engineering roles often San Diego-based with some remote flexibility.
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work at the intersection of additive manufacturing, robotics, and defense; fast-growing startup with significant VC backing; direct impact on warfighter capabilities.
- **Engineering Culture**: Heavy focus on embedded systems, automation, airframe design, RF, AI/optimization, and manufacturing engineering. Teams are small, cross-functional, and hands-on.

## Sources
1. [Gem Careers – Firestorm](https://jobs.gem.com/firestorm)
2. [launchfirestorm.com – Solution & About](https://launchfirestorm.com/?from_theconsensus=1)
3. [LinkedIn – Firestorm Labs](https://linkedin.com/company/firestorm-labs)
4. [Built In – Firestorm Careers](https://builtin.com/company/firestorm)
5. [Craft.co – Firestorm Company Profile](https://craft.co/firestorm)

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