Avionics Integration Engineer, Merlin Labs
Aviation tech for fully autonomous flight
Open for applications
Aviation tech for fully autonomous flight
101-200 employees
Open for applications
101-200 employees
Company mission
To develop hardware and software solutions that deliver the capability for aircraft to fly useful missions autonomously and safely.
Role
Who you are
- BS in Electronics, Electrical, Aerospace, or Mechanical Engineering
- 5+ years of relevant systems level electrical systems and integration design experience for the aviation and aerospace industries
- Experience integrating and debugging systems containing COTS/MOTS modules, custom circuits, software, sensors, and human / machine / graphical user interfaces
- Working knowledge of integrating various components using standard interface protocols such as ARINC 429, RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485
- Familiarity with lab test equipment, including oscilloscopes, multimeters, current probes, data acquisition, and bus analyzers
- Experience with creating and interpreting system schematics, wiring diagrams, and subsystem block diagrams
- Experience with wire harness design and connector component selection and sourcing
- Outstanding organization, analytical, and problem-solving skills
- Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills
Desirable
- Specific experience with aircraft avionics, communications, and power distribution and management systems
- Working knowledge and understanding of the qualification and regulatory requirements for commercial and military aircraft. Specifically: RTCA DO-160, DO-178, DO-254, and MIL-STD-810
- Hands-on capability in lab, field, and aircraft settings and able to function comfortably as an electromechanical technician to build and prove out designs. (SMT soldering, drilling, wiring, crimping, use of hand tools, design/build of cable assemblies.)
- Hands-on experience with electro-mechanical systems such as motors and associated EMI/EMC design and qualification testing
- Aviation/Aerospace wire harness design experience
- Experience with design tools such as SolidWorks, Altium, or KiCAD
What the job involves
- Define and mature electrical and electronic aspects of the architecture for our aircraft autonomy system, including power distribution, communications, computer, electro-mechanical, control systems, and user interfaces and controls
- Integrate and verify Commercial/Modified-Off-the-Shelf (COTS/MOTS) electronic subsystems for aircraft and test lab installation
- Provide guidance to lab and aircraft installation technicians
- Prepare and release electrical design and fabrication drawings, test plans and reports, and associated aircraft installation and certification documents
- This position may require up to 50% travel, sometimes with short notice, to both domestic and international locations to support aircraft and system integration
Our take
Xwing, Oyka, Reliable Robotics, and Volocopter all are among the many private competitors looking to produce the first at-scale autonomous flight vehicle - and reap the corresponding benefits from hefty transport, defence, and logistics contracts. Merlin Labs is taking a slightly different tack, and is gaining real traction.
Instead of developing an autonomous vehicle, the company has designed configurable software that can be fitted into any plane to turn it into one. It’s already received certification from the FAA in the US, and the CAA in New Zealand; now, the goal is to get it fitted into large commercial aircraft to help reduce crew sizes. Ultimately, Merlin Labs is hoping its software will be used to fly smaller aircraft completely autonomously.
Providing a way for non-autonomous aircraft to be repurposed is a neat and attractive solution: costly aircraft needn’t be scrapped, human co-pilots don’t require retraining, and there’s a wealth of existing commercial and private applications for the software. So it’s an astute way of manoeuvring ahead of well-funded competition. Investors are paying attention, as are top-tier clients: Merlin has partnered with the likes of Ameriflight, the U.S. Air Force, and Dynamic Aviation, and pulled in millions of dollars of funding. It will need it: the competition is fierce.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
55% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Apr 2023
$1m
GRANT
Jul 2022
$105m
SERIES B
Total funding: $170.8m
Company benefits
- Health, dental, life insurance
- Unlimited vacation
- 401k with match
Company HQ
Leather District, Boston, MA
Leadership
Matt George
(CEO)Served in an OPC role at The White House, then on the Senior Advisory Board at Boston 2024. Went on to found and lead tech company Bridj.
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