Electronic Board Designer

Overview

Description

Title:

Electronic Board Designer

Location:

Kansas City, KS (onsite with work-from-home flexibility)

Guide Tech, a subsidiary of Palladyne AI, builds high-performance avionics and autonomy software for aerospace, space, and defense systems. We support a wide array of vehicles, from small multi-rotors to unmanned fighter jets, launch vehicles, spacecraft, re-entry vehicles, missiles, and counter-UAS interceptors. Our BRAIN flight computer pairs an NVIDIA Jetson Orin autonomy module with a Zynq-7000 real-time module for flight-critical Guidance/Navigation/Control, sensors, and I/O.

Interfaces include RS-422/485, USB 3.0, HDMI, GigE, PWM/DSHOT, SPI, I2C, CAN, MIPI, PCIe, and more, with a hardware safety watchdog and triple-redundant IMUs. We outsource PCB fabrication and SMT assembly, and perform in-house inspection, bring-up, test, and final assembly of our board stack—so you’ll see designs through to working hardware. We also leverage hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) flight simulation with our FLEX software and simulation to accelerate integration & test.

Palladyne AI (NASDAQ: PYDN) is an AI software company on a mission to automate physically demanding work that has historically been “too complex to automate.” With more than thirty years of robotics R&D — including during our time under Raytheon — we’ve developed advanced AI and ML software that enables robots to observe, learn, reason, and act with human-like intelligence.

You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with our current electronic board designer on BRAIN updates, upgrades, automated test station, and manufacturing. You’ll also have the opportunity to be the primary on new board designs in our pipeline:

• Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs)
• Gimbal controllers
• UAV Power Distribution Boards (PDBs)
• New AI/computer-vision boards using additional processor modules/chips beyond Jetson

Over time, you’ll lead these new designs from concept through release & manufacturing.

Collaborate on BRAIN

• Contribute to schematics, constraints, and layout guidance for the BRAIN stack; partner with the current designer on reviews, DFM/DFT, and controlled releases.
• Support board bring-up & troubleshooting across high-speed and sensor I/O (e.g., MIPI-CSI, USB 3.0, GigE, HDMI, RS-422/485, PWM/DSHOT, IMUs, GNSS/mag/baro, watchdog/reset).
• Develop/maintain FPGA RTL (Zynq-7000 SoC): IP integration, constraints, timing closure, and deterministic I/O for controls/sensors.
• Build functional test fixtures & automation (ATE) and integrate with Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation to shrink cycle time from assembly to flight testing.

Lead New Designs (near-term Pipeline) Such As

• ESCs (BLDC): gate-driver selection, current/voltage sense, switching power stage layout, EMC/EMI controls; collaborate on motor-control firmware.
• Gimbal controllers: motor drivers, IMU integration, precision timing/synchronization, encoder interfaces, jitter/latency budgeting.
• UAV PDBs: power architecture, protection, high-current layout, thermals, test.
• AI / CV boards: additional processor modules/chips (camera input, memory, power-up sequencing, drivers).
• For each: deliver concept ? schematics ? constraints/stack-up ? DFM/DFT ? CM handoff ? bring-up & verification ? production test.

Production & Quality (scale-up)

• Contribute to the quality & test plan (incoming inspection criteria, ATP/QTP, boundary-scan/JTAG where applicable, environmental/EMI screening, yield tracking).
• Prepare manufacturing build packages, work with contract manufacturers on DFM feedback, and drive ECNs/PCNs.
• Contribute to failure analysis and corrective actions

• Have an Electrical Engineering or related degree
• Board level design/integration: RS422/SPI/I2C/CAN/USB3/MIPI/PCIe/etc
• DDR Memory
• MIPI Camera Interfaces
• Power Supplies
• Board assembly/prototyping:
  Stencil/non-stencil assembly
• 0402/QFN/LGA/BGA (0.8mm+ pitch) hand assembly for prototyping
• Board Certification:
  Industry standard testing
• Shock/Vibe/EMI/etc
• Board rework:
  Hot plate, Hot air
• Soldering certification
• Board analysis:
  Software drivers, VHDL/Verilog IP Blocks
• Signal Analysis (Oscilloscope/Logic Analyzer)
• Have strong DFM/DFT instincts and collaboration with…