Founding Engineer, Avionics
About the Role
As a Founding Engineer, you will be a core part of the team creating a robot that must survive operating for long durations in some of the most cramped, dark, dirty, and hazardous industrial environments — and eventually, making thousands of them.
In this role, you will develop the embedded and electrical nervous system of the robot. You will design the electronics, write the firmware, bring up hardware from blank PCBs, and integrate sensors, motors, and compute into a reliable, field-ready system.
Responsibilities
- •Design, lay out, and bring up custom PCBs for motor control, sensor integration, and power management
- •Write embedded firmware in C/C++ for microcontrollers (STM32, ESP32, etc.)
- •Integrate and tune sensors (IMUs, LiDAR, cameras, thermal) for autonomous navigation
- •Design and implement communication protocols (CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, RF links)
- •Build and maintain flight controller and motor control firmware
- •Develop robust power distribution and battery management systems
- •Test hardware in the lab and in the field — debug, iterate, ship
Requirements
We're looking for founding engineers with deep expertise in embedded systems and electronics.
Core Skills:
- •Proficient in C/C++ for embedded systems
- •PCB design experience (KiCad, Altium, or Eagle)
- •Experience with STM32, ESP32, or similar microcontrollers
- •Strong understanding of analog and digital circuit design
- •Experience with communication protocols (CAN, SPI, I2C, UART)
- •Soldering skills — both SMD and through-hole
Bonus:
- •Experience with ROS1/ROS2 on Linux
- •Flight controller development (PX4, ArduPilot, Betaflight)
- •RF communications and antenna design
- •Motor control (FOC, BLDC drivers)
- •Experience in harsh environment electronics (IP rating, conformal coating)
About You:
- •You build things with your hands — robots, drones, RC vehicles, maker projects
- •You're comfortable with an oscilloscope and a soldering iron
- •You care about clean wiring, clean code, and clean interfaces
- •You're driven by curiosity and build complex things for fun
Compensation & Benefits
$130K/yr - $200K/yr + Equity (0.3% - 1.5%) + Benefits
Drover Labs cares deeply about your time. Project work and on-site interviews are compensated on a paid hourly basis.
Apply for this role
Takes about 5 minutes