About the role
WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather models with a unique proprietary data source: a global constellation of next-generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. We design, manufacture, and operate our own balloons, using the data they collect to generate otherwise unattainable weather intelligence. Our mission is to eliminate weather uncertainty, and in the process help humanity adapt to climate change, be that predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. We are building a future in which the planet is instrumented by thousands of our microballoons, eliminating gaps in our understanding of the planet and giving people and businesses the information they need to make critical decisions. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top investors including Khosla Ventures. WindBorne is looking for an Embedded Electrical Engineer to run hardware design, initial bringup, hardware debug, and manufacturing support of a number of key elements of our flight hardware and ground support systems. We're seeking someone who can jump between PCB design in the morning, debugging firmware in the afternoon, and searching DigiKey at night; someone who finds satisfaction in making things work in theory, in practice, and at scale, and in running through those stages as quickly as PCBA turnaround times permit. This role is for someone who would be unfulfilled designing predictable power supplies or standard microcontroller boards. Instead, you’ll be creating systems that can reliably operate from -70°C to +40°C using components that are entirely unrated for such a task, while counting every gram and milliwatt. We aren't looking for someone who wants to spend weeks designing the theoretically perfect circuit. Rather, we need someone who can quickly ship a design that doesn’t appear to be broken, and who genuinely enjoys spending a day at the bench playing electrical whac-a-mole when something inevitably is. The ideal candidate will understand and contribute to the big picture to ensure effort is directed only where it is most useful, while spending most of the day on the messy details of building the world’s largest balloon constellation.