Electrical Engineer

Company Overview 

Metrea is a defense company dedicated to translating commercial innovation into solutions for the hardest problems in national security. With deep mission expertise, Metrea focuses on delivering effects-as-a-service across Aerospace, Electromagnetic & Cyber, Digital & Synthetic domains via its capability groups. Metrea also consists of six support groups (Operations, People, Finance, Legal, Strategy and Solutions) that guide the development of specific capabilities that Metrea's files (product, projects, programs etc.) leverage to achieve their targets.

Capability Unit 

Metrea Algorithmics (MAX) provides unique engineering services, cloud-based cyber operations infrastructure, advanced tactics, techniques and procedures training, and a full suite of wireless communication surveys and reconnaissance sensors that enable real-time multi-domain awareness while enhancing command and control.  

Position Summary 

Reporting to the SHADOWLAB Lead Engineer, Electromagnetics and Cyber Group (EM&C), and supporting Metrea’s overall engineering efforts, the Electrical Engineer will join our busy team specializing in state-of-the-art military communications and signals intelligence products. All our teams operate in a small agile environment which allows our engineering personnel to work independently on a wide variety of systems and products. Our mix of product development and R&D also provides our engineering staff with a constant flow of new and interesting projects.

Role and Responsibilities 

1. Power architecture: size the battery (chemistry/cell count), design PDBs/DC-DC rails, transient/EMI filtering, pre-charge/soft-start, redundancy/fail-over, and power-up sequencing for flight computers, ESCs, RF payloads, and gimbal.
2. Propulsion & motor-control: select/qualify brushed/BLDC motors and ESCs, set Kv/torque/prop matches, implement/tune FOC/DShot/CAN ESC parameters, and run thrust-stand and efficiency testing.
3. Gimbal & antenna tracking electronics: design the 2–3-axis gimbal drivers (sine/FOC commutation), choose and interface encoders (absolute/incremental), implement tight PID/LQR loops, manage cable wrap/slip ring, and verify pointing accuracy vs. link budget needs.
4. Battery charging & capacity gauging: design fast-charge/balance systems (CC/CV), select/implement fuel-gauge/BMS ICs, SOC/SOH estimation, safety interlocks, thermal monitoring, and charger/ground-support hardware.
5. Embedded interfaces & integration: define and bring-up SPI/I²C/UART/CAN/UAVCAN/RS-485/Ethernet links among sensors, ESCs, BMS, gimbal, and the compute stack (e.g., Jetson Orin); ensure determinism/latency budgets for closed-loop control.
6. Verification, compliance, and DFM/DFT: build HIL rigs (motor dyno/gimbal stim), write test plans, run thermal/vibe/EMI pre-compliance (e.g., DO-160/MIL-STD-810 sections), create manufacturing test fixtures, FMEAs, and release documentation (schematics, BOM, ICDs).

Skills and Experience 

1. Power electronics & protection: DC-DC (buck/boost/SEPIC), gate-driver/MOSFET selection, current/voltage sensing (shunt/Hall), surge/TVS design, grounding/shielding, and thermal design for 6S–14S Li-ion/LiPo systems.
2. Motion control theory & tuning: PID/LQR/state observers, FOC for BLDC/gimbal motors, jerk-limited trajectories, anti-windup, notch filters, and frequency-response tuning (Bode/Nyquist).
3. Motors, ESCs & protocols: brushed/BLDC sizing, torque/Kv trade-offs, ESC protocols (PWM/OneShot/DShot/CAN/UAVCAN), gimbal drivers (sinusoidal/FOC), and encoder technologies (magnetic/optical, absolute/incremental).
4. Batteries & charging: Li-ion/LiPo characteristics, cell balancing (passive/active), SOC/SOH (coulomb counting + Kalman), pack safety (fault detection, contactors, fusing), and charger design/integration.
5. Sensing & RF-aware integration: IMU/gyro/magnetometer/GNSS/RTK bring-up and calibration, time sync (PPS/PTP), low-noise analog design near RF payloads, and EMI/EMC mitigation so tracking electronics don’