Principal Avionics Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: Auckland, New Zealand. This role is based in a New Zealand office and requires eligibility to access equipment and data regulated under U.S. ITAR.

Company

hirify.global is an end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems for space missions.

What you will do

• Serve as the technical authority and hands-on subject matter expert for avionics hardware, circuit design, PCB layout, and test strategy.
• Take avionics components and architectures through requirements, R&D, prototyping, qualification, and production.
• Review and approve engineering changes, board and flex assembly designs, design analyses, and validation activities.
• Own avionics and vehicle technical risks, make engineering trade-offs, and lead root cause analysis for anomalies and failures.
• Lead small teams through complex engineering challenges and assess emerging technologies for the avionics development strategy.
• Mentor engineers, improve engineering practices, and contribute to resourcing, hiring, and onboarding plans.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent professional experience.
• 8+ years of relevant industry experience.
• High proficiency in at least two of analogue design, high-speed digital, and power electronics.
• Strong command of electronics design, circuit simulation, and analysis tools.
• Ability to provide technical guidance and mentoring, with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• For New Zealand office roles, nationality and background checks apply because of ITAR-regulated equipment and data. Eligibility may require citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union, or a NATO country.

Nice to have

• Experience taking hardware from concept through production.
• Understanding of space environmental testing, including vibration, shock, thermal, and TVAC testing.
• Familiarity with requirements management and compliance matrices.
• Experience developing capital investment business cases and setting technical strategy.
• Experience driving cross-functional initiatives through influence rather than authority.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on ownership from design and hardware testing through launch and recovery.
• Fast-changing environment with evolving requirements and tight deadlines.
• Emphasis on technical rigour, bias for action, teamwork, and mission delivery.
• Opportunity to work on Neutron, a reusable medium-lift launch vehicle for constellation deployment, interplanetary missions, and human spaceflight.

Hiring process

• Background and nationality checks are completed before employment offers for New Zealand office roles.