Staff Hardware Systems Engineer (Defense)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States

Base compensation: $170,000–$230,000 per year, excluding bonus, equity, and benefits.

Company

hirify.global develops modern defense systems powered by Coherent Distributed Networks for defense, commercial aviation, and border protection applications.

What you will do

• Lead technical development of defense systems from product definition and architecture through qualification, production, and field deployment.
• Support a cross-functional hardware team by setting technical priorities and driving execution.
• Define system architectures, allocate functionality across mechanical, electrical, RF, software, and test subsystems, and coordinate interfaces.
• Conduct trade studies balancing performance, SWaP-C, manufacturability, reliability, schedule, and cost.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks, support SRR, PDR, CDR, and TRR reviews, and make technical decisions under ambiguity.
• Collaborate with manufacturing, suppliers, and test teams to mature designs into production and personally contribute to critical engineering work.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field and 8+ years of relevant engineering experience.
• Experience with space systems, missile systems, avionics, radar, electronic warfare, or defense electronics.
• Strong understanding of system architecture, interface definition, requirements allocation, and engineering trade studies.
• Proven technical leadership in multidisciplinary teams delivering complex hardware products in fast-paced environments.
• Strong attention to detail and execution, with the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Nice to have

• Master's degree in engineering or business.
• Experience with military specifications, technical proposals, design for manufacturability, and production transition.
• Hands-on experience with prototype integration, customer demonstrations, and complex hardware troubleshooting.
• Experience with DOORS, Jama, Cameo, MagicDraw, SysML, or other requirements management and MBSE tools.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits fully paid by the company.
• 401(k) with a 50% company match up to 6% of pay, plus FSA, HSA, and life insurance.
• Free daily lunch, no-meeting Fridays, unlimited PTO, and a casual dress code.
• Pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and annual bonuses planned for the future.
• Work with an expanding organization of approximately 350 employees across five global offices.