Test Engineer, R&D - aureliussystems

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:

You're a forward deployed embedded engineer who loves R&D testing.

You write the firmware that exercises the system. You wire the electronics. You run the test scripts you wrote. You own the data path from scope trace to debrief slide. The thermal and ruggedization side of test will come from a different hire — your job is the full system integration testing from embedded to the electrical layer.

We're transitioning from prototype to product on an electromechanical directed energy system. The test infrastructure you build now becomes the foundation for everything we ship. You're not inheriting a test bench. You're designing it. You're not running someone else's HIL setup.

You're building it from scratch and making sure it actually reflects what happens downrange.

You'll own verification and validation across embedded firmware, power electronics, electromechanical assemblies, and full-system integration. You're the single responsible party for ensuring all testing from top to bottom is completed and recorded as we move through the iteration process.

What You'll Own:

• Lead field testing end-to-end: setup, operation, data collection, teardown, post-test analysis, and failure writeups
• Write firmware and embedded test code that exercises the system end-to-end (C/C++, real time)
• Wire test electronics, build harnesses, instrumentation setups, and test fixtures
• Develop automated test procedures in Python
• Debug across firmware, power rails, and electrical — root cause from first principles
• Work directly with embedded, electrical, and mechanical engineers to reproduce bugs, validate fixes, and prevent regressions
• Develop test plans, acceptance criteria, and readiness gates as we move from prototype to production
• Partner with the hardware team on DFM and production readiness
• Build HIL and SIL test environments
• Enforce safety procedures in high-power, high-voltage testing environments

What We're Looking For