Hardware Systems Engineer

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 Senior 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:  

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

Lead 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 manage internal and external interfaces  

Lead 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  

Lead 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  1 0 1 2 + 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 of small 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 …