Back to jobs

Staff Hardware Systems Engineer

El Segundo, California, United States

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. 

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com.

Role Overview:

Chaos is seeking a Staff Hardware Systems Engineer to lead the technical development of next-generation defense systems from concept through field deployment. You will translate mission needs and product strategy into system architectures and integrated hardware solutions. Working across disciplines, you'll solve complex technical problems, drive engineering tradeoffs, and ensure products perform reliably in operational environments.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical credibility with team leadership, systems thinking, and experience delivering hardware in a fast-paced environment. This individual leads from the front, personally executing high-impact technical tasks in support of program success.

This is a full-time position on-site in El Segundo, CA.

Responsibilities:

· Support a small cross-functional hardware development team, establishing technical priorities and driving execution from concept through production

· Support hardware systems engineering from early product definition through architecture, requirements, qualification, production, and lifecycle support

· Define system architectures and allocate functionality across mechanical, electrical, RF, software, and test subsystems

· Define and coordinate internal and external interfaces

· Support system-level trade studies balancing performance, SWaP-C, manufacturability, reliability, schedule, and cost

· Make timely technical decisions under ambiguity while balancing mission performance, risk, schedule, manufacturability, and cost

· Develop new product concepts and support proposals and technology demonstrations

· Identify technical risks early and drive practical mitigation strategies

· Support technical reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR

· Personally contribute to critical engineering work as needed to ensure team and program success

· Collaborate with manufacturing, suppliers, and test teams to mature designs into production

 

What Success Looks Like:

· Mission needs and product concepts become executable engineering solutions

· Cross-functional teams remain aligned around a coherent system architecture

· Products perform reliably in demonstrations and operational deployments

· Technical risks are resolved before they become program risks

 

Minimum Requirements:

· Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field with 8+ years of relevant engineering experience

· Background in space systems, missile systems, avionics, radar, EW, or defense electronics

· Strong understanding of system architecture, interface definition, and engineering tradeoffs

· Proven technical leadership within multidisciplinary engineering teams delivering complex hardware products in a fast-paced development environment

· Experience performing system architecture trade studies and allocating system and hardware requirements

· Strong attention to detail and execution

· Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

 

Preferred Requirements:

· Master's degree in an engineering or business discipline

· Experience interpreting and applying military specifications and standards

· Experience writing technical proposals

· Experience designing for manufacturability and production transition

· Experience with prototype integration and customer demonstrations

· Hands-on experience developing, integrating, and troubleshooting complex hardware systems

· Requirements management or MBSE tools (DOORS, Jama, Cameo, MagicDraw, SysML)


Why CHAOS?

  • Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
  • Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
  • Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
  • Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
  • Team Growth: 350 employees and counting across 5 global offices
$170k-230k

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. 

 

Recruiting Agencies: CHAOS Industries does not accept unsolicited resumes or outreach. Unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed or compensated.

 

#LI-onsite

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at CHAOS Industries? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Please note this position does not necessarily require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. 

Select...

EXPORT CONTROLS - This position may require access to information and technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Your responses to the questions below will be used solely to determine your eligibility under U.S. law to receive information and materials subject to U.S. export controls.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in CHAOS Industries’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...