Electronics Engineer (PCB Design) in Auburn Hills

Job Description

Company Overview

Swarm Defense Technologies designs and builds small unmanned aircraft systems for the U.S. Department of Defense. We are headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where electrical design, firmware, machining, assembly, and flight test all happen under one roof. Our current work is focused on moving production-ready small UAS from prototype to volume delivery on compressed program timelines, and we are building the engineering and manufacturing team to do it.

Job Summary

Swarm Defense is hiring an Electronics Engineer to own the design of the printed circuit boards inside our aircraft and ground equipment: flight controllers, power distribution, battery management, ESC and motor drive. You will take designs from requirements through schematic, layout, prototype bring-up, and release to production.

This is a hands-on role at a small company. You will be soldering rework on your own boards, sitting with the firmware engineer during bring-up, and walking the assembly line to understand why a board failed test. You will also be responsible for making your designs manufacturable at volume, not just functional on the bench.

Key Responsibilities

• Design schematics and multi-layer PCB layouts for flight, power, and payload electronics.
• Select components with attention to cost, lead time, second sourcing, and obsolescence risk.
• Design power electronics including battery management, DC-DC conversion, and motor drive stages.
• Perform board bring-up, debug, and validation on prototype hardware.
• Own DFM and DFT: design boards that can be assembled, tested, and repaired efficiently in production.
• Design and build test fixtures and functional test procedures for production boards.
• Manage EMI/EMC considerations in layout and support environmental testing.
• Work with contract manufacturers on fabrication and assembly quotes, DFM feedback, and quality issues.
• Maintain BOMs, design documentation, and revision control.

Requirements

• BS in Electrical Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• 3+ years designing PCBs that shipped in a product.
• Proficiency in Altium, KiCad, or a comparable EDA tool including multi-layer layout and impedance control.
• Solid grounding in analog and digital circuit design, power electronics, and signal integrity.
• Hands-on lab skills: oscilloscope, logic analyzer, power analyzer, fine-pitch rework.
• Ability to read and write firmware-level interface specifications with an embedded engineer.

Bonus Points

• Experience with UAS, robotics, or other size- and weight-constrained electronics.
• Battery management system or high-current ESC design experience.
• RF layout experience (antenna integration, coaxial routing, filtering).
• Familiarity with PX4 or ArduPilot hardware ecosystems.

Benefits

• Health Insurance: We cover 100% of health insurance premiums for our employees.
• 401(k): Company retirement plan with employer match.

Swarm Defense is an early-stage defense company, and the pace is set by what the mission requires. The work is hands-on with engineers building what they design, testing it on real aircraft, and owning the result.

We reward initiative and give people ownership of their area. If you want to see your work fly within weeks and you are comfortable operating without a large support structure around you, this is the right environment.