Hardware Integration Engineer – Recon Works

Location: Washington, DC (Hybrid on-site)

Travel: 25%

Clearance: U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain a security clearance required

About NODA

NODA is a veteran-owned, venture-backed defense technology company building the orchestration layer for autonomous unmanned systems. Our platform coordinates fleets of heterogeneous vehicles across air, sea, and land for defense and intelligence customers. We expect every hire to be mission-driven with strong agency.

NODA Recon Works imagines the future of autonomous warfare, then builds it. We are a small team of multidisciplinary technical experts that scouts, analyzes, prototypes, and delivers de-risked technologies to integrate into our products or become new ones altogether.

Engineers wanted for challenging journey. Fast pace, uncertain requirements, imaginative leaps expected, path to production sometimes doubtful. Defense of the free world in case of success.

The Role

As Hardware Integration Engineer - Recon Works, you turn concepts into working hardware. You design prototype parts in CAD, integrate mechanical, electrical, and compute subsystems onto unmanned vehicles, and test what you build in the lab and the field until it works or we learn why it can't.

This is a hands-on mechanical engineering and hardware integration role for someone who would rather be at the bench or on the range than in a slide deck. You work on our Recon Works team with a technical program manager, multidisciplinary engineer, and a mission analyst.

Key Responsibilities

Plan and run bench, lab, and field tests of prototype systems: write test plans, instrument hardware, collect and analyze data, and turn results into design changes (50%)

Integrate subsystems from multiple sources (sensors, payloads, compute, power, communications, and propulsion) onto air, sea, and land platforms, including wiring harnesses, connectors, and power distribution (30%)

Design prototype parts and assemblies in CAD (SolidWorks, Onshape, or similar) for rapid fabrication by 3D printing, machining, or sheet metal, from brackets and enclosures to complete payload mounts (20%)

Document designs, interfaces, and test results so de-risked prototypes can hand off cleanly to NODA product and engineering teams

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in mechanical, aerospace, electrical, mechatronics, or a related engineering field

3+ years of hands-on hardware development, integration, or test experience

Proficiency in a parametric CAD tool (SolidWorks, Onshape, NX, or Creo) and in designing for rapid fabrication (additive, CNC, sheet metal)

Hands-on electromechanical integration experience, including wiring harnesses, connectors, and power distribution, and debugging with multimeters, oscilloscopes, and similar tools

Experience writing test plans, running hardware tests, and turning test data into design changes

Comfort with shop tools and fabrication, and with working outdoors in field test conditions

US citizenship is required due to ITAR regulations, along with the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

Experience building or testing unmanned systems (UAS, UGV, USV, or UUV)

Familiarity with common autonomy hardware, such as PX4 or ArduPilot autopilots, embedded compute (for example, NVIDIA Jetson), EO/IR, lidar, or radar sensors, and tactical radios

Python or similar scripting for data acquisition and test analysis

Environmental or qualification testing experience (for example, MIL-STD-810 or MIL-STD-461)

FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate

Existing Secret or higher clearance

Attributes

Bias towards building: you would rather make a part tonight than analyze it for a week

Systems thinking: you see how a change affects the entire system and never think in terms of local optimums

Comfort with ambiguity: requirements shift and prototypes fail; you have a short memory when it comes to failure and a long memory when it comes to vision

High agency: you find the problems, fix them, and communicate back to team