Principal Electrical Engineer

About the role

The Principal Electrical Engineer is HUT Group's highest individual contributor title the domain authority for electrical hardware across Alto Aviation's product portfolio. This is not a management role. It is reserved for engineers who can set cross-program technical direction, solve the hardest problems, and raise the bar across multiple teams and product lines simultaneously.

The PE owns long-lasting electrical architectures and standards, mentors senior engineers, and de-risks the business through sound, experienced technical judgment. Expect roughly 70–85% hands-on engineering with 15–30% technical leadership, mentorship, and cross-functional influence. The role can remain an individual contributor track or migrate to senior management depending on the individual's career goals.

What you'll do

Core Technical Leadership

•     Own the domain's north star: reference architectures, interfaces, performance/quality budgets, and a 2–3 year electrical systems evolution roadmap across all LRUs.

•     Identify and retire program-level technical risks early via prototypes, modeling, design spikes, and test harnesses — including worst-case failure paths.

•     Author and maintain organization-wide design patterns, verification checklists, ECO templates, and release standards for electrical hardware.

•     Lead critical design reviews; resolve cross-team conflicts; sign off on domain-level PDR/CDR packages and verification strategies.

•     Coach Leads and senior engineers on architecture, debugging, and decision-making.

•     Drive CI/CD strategies for hardware (simulation, HIL), observability, and failure-analysis methods that shorten feedback loops and improve first-pass yield.

Electrical Hardware — Principal-Level Responsibilities

•     Define platform-level power strategy, signal-integrity budgets, and EMI/EMC design rules applicable across all product lines.

•     Lead the redesign and optimization of Class D audio amplifier systems (AC and DC variants) for aviation cabin entertainment resolving power supply issues and implementing high-efficiency DC-DC converter solutions.

•     Design multiphase power supplies delivering 200W+ without heatsinking; develop filter topologies meeting aviation EMI/EMC requirements (DO-160).

•     Approve critical component selections (SoCs, FPGAs, PHYs, power stages); define component derating policies, obsolescence strategy, and long-term supply management.

•     Create Public Address (PA) amplifier systems for business aircraft; own audio CODEC/DSP integration at the platform level.

•     Establish board-level design rules for HDI layouts, high-speed interfaces, and mixed-signal partitioning applicable across all LRUs and contract manufacturers.

•     Define protection circuit standards: Linear/Switching Surge Stoppers, TVS, TBU, GDT — ensuring consistency across programs.

•     Lead complex bring-up and production test strategies that scale across CMs; drive Failure Analysis/Root Cause Analysis with suppliers.

Systems, Certification & Customer Impact

•     Collaborate with certification teams to define and execute DO-160 compliance strategies (Lightning, Switching Surge, EMI, ESD) across programs.

•     Evaluate key vendors, components, and toolchains; guide make/buy decisions and long-term supply strategy.

•     Partner with Systems and Quality on requirements traceability, configuration management, and verification evidence — ensuring artifacts are right-sized and reusable across programs.

•     Provide input to product and program roadmaps, ensuring feasibility, sequencing, and technical risk burn-down align with business goals.

Required Qualifications

Education

•     Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Electronics Engineering required.

•     Master's degree strongly preferred.

Experience & Technical Depth

•     10–15+ years of hands-on analog and mixed-signal electronics design, with demonstrated ownership of multiple complex subsystems from requirements through field support.

•     Proven authorship of cross-program architecture or standards adopted successfully across teams — not just single-product design ownership.

•     Expert-level proficiency in Class D audio amplifier design; deep experience with high-efficiency DC-DC converters (buck, boost, buck-boost) and multi-phase, high-power supply design.

•     Expert-level proficiency in Altium Designer or equivalent professional PCB CAD tools; mastery of LTSpice, PSpice, or equivalent simulation tools.

•     Strong understanding of audio CODECs and DSPs, EMI/EMC design, and protection circuitry.

•     Track record of de-risking hard technical problems through prototyping, modeling, and rigorous verification — with data to back it up.

Aviation & Regulatory Experience

•     DO-160 environmental qualification: Lightning, Switching Surge, EMI, ESD, and related categories.

•     Meaningful understanding of avionics certification processes; TSO-certified product experience preferred.

•     Experience designing for safety-critical or high-reliability environments with documented verification evidence.

PCB Design Expertise

•     HDI PCB design: high-speed routing, impedance control, length matching, microVias, buried and blind vias.

•     Mixed-signal layout: proper grounding, power distribution, noise isolation, and multilayer stackup design for signal integrity.

Embedded & Communication Systems

•     C/C++ for embedded systems; ARM Cortex-M series microcontroller experience.

•     Communication protocols: Ethernet, I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, RS422/485.

•     RTOS familiarity: FreeRTOS, TI-RTOS, or similar; embedded Linux exposure a plus.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

•     Audio DSP and filter design experience; knowledge of Sigma Studio.

•     Familiarity with Bluetooth audio systems (BLE, I2S, TDM) and FET power designs.

•     Previous work in aerospace, defense, or other safety-critical regulated industries.

•     Customer-facing technical leadership experience with OEMs, MROs, or audit bodies.

•     Experience managing DFM/DFT requirements in partnership with contract manufacturers.

WORKING MODEL & EXPECTATIONS

•     Hands-On Where It Matters: Build reference implementations, proofs-of-concept, and hardening fixes; conduct deep design reviews on critical paths.

•     Stewardship: Maintain living architecture docs, decision records, and checklists; insist on clarity and simplicity.

•     Mentorship & Culture: Model calm, data-driven decision-making; teach engineers to reason with constraints.

•     Inclusive Influence: Create space for dissenting technical views; drive crisp decisions with explicit tradeoffs and follow-through.

•     Self-Motivated: Demonstrated passion for electronics — personal projects, publications, or open-source contributions are valued indicators.