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Salary: USD 255,000 - 357,000 / annual
Neros Technologies is a defense technology company designing and manufacturing high-performance unmanned systems (drones) tested in combat and built at startup speed. The company is rebuilding America's drone industrial base with a culture focused on fast iteration, hands-on execution, and closing the gap between design and deployment.
As Principal Connectivity Systems Engineer, you will define the technical future of Neros' connectivity systems. You own the end-to-end architecture connecting FPV drones, ground stations, repeaters, radios, antennas, embedded systems, video links, command-and-control links, and platform-level electrical constraints into a coherent system that works in the field. This is a principal-level architecture role requiring fluency across communications theory, RF hardware, embedded systems, electrical design, platform integration, test strategy, and product requirements—all while maintaining startup execution speed.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own end-to-end connectivity system architecture for current and future FPV drone platforms, ground systems, and supporting infrastructure
- Translate long-term platform requirements into wireless system architectures, development roadmaps, technical proposals, and executable engineering plans
- Make architecture-level tradeoffs across RF performance, link budget, waveform/modulation, antennas, embedded compute, power, thermal, latency, reliability, manufacturability, and schedule
- Define the future of Neros video, command-and-control, telemetry, repeater, mesh, point-to-point, and ground-to-air connectivity capabilities
- Serve as the connectivity team's technical authority in cross-disciplinary architecture reviews, platform decisions, proposal reviews, and feasibility assessments
- Partner with RF design, electrical, embedded software, systems, mechanical, manufacturing, test, product, and leadership teams to turn ambiguous requirements into working systems
- Identify technical risks, infeasible approaches, and missing requirements early enough to change direction quickly; mentor principal, senior, and staff engineers
Requirements:
- Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, RF/Microwave Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field
- 12+ years of experience designing, architecting, integrating, or leading complex wireless, RF, embedded, electrical, or communications systems
- Deep understanding of wireless communication systems: link budgets, modulation, coding, receiver sensitivity, interference, coexistence, propagation, latency, throughput, reliability, and system-level RF tradeoffs
- Experience architecting systems that combine RF hardware, antennas, embedded software, electrical interfaces, power constraints, and real-world operating requirements
- Demonstrated ability to lead ambiguous, architecture-level technical decisions across multiple engineering disciplines
- Strong electrical engineering fundamentals: power, signal integrity, digital interfaces, mixed-signal systems, sensors, compute, and embedded hardware constraints
- Strong embedded systems judgment: firmware/software architecture, hardware-software interfaces, real-time constraints, telemetry, diagnostics, and field-update considerations
- Experience taking wireless or embedded hardware systems from concept through prototype, validation, field test, production readiness, or deployment
- Ability to write clear technical proposals, architecture documents, trade studies, and development plans for technical and executive audiences
- Track record of mentoring senior technical contributors and influencing engineering direction without relying only on organizational authority
Nice to have:
- Drone or UAV connectivity experience: architecting wireless systems for drones, FPV platforms, robotics, aircraft, or mobile ground systems
- Video and C2 links: low-latency video links, command-and-control links, telemetry links, mesh radios, point-to-point radios, or contested RF environments
- Full-stack radio systems: RF front ends, antennas, digital baseband, embedded software, networking, and system-level performance
- Fielded hardware: shipping or deploying wireless hardware in harsh, mobile, or high-consequence environments
- Principal-level technical leadership in defense context: setting architecture for multiple teams, mentoring principal engineers, acting as final technical reviewer, EW-aware communications, resilient links, tactical radios, or high-reliability systems
