Automotive Engineer Jobs in Madison, WI (NOW HIRING)

Haast Autonomous is building an autonomous aircraft network for time-sensitive medical logistics. We’re developing long-range VTOL aircraft, autonomy software, and the operational foundation needed to move critical payloads between hospitals, labs, and healthcare facilities on-demand faster and more reliably.

We’re early, small, and moving quickly. Joining now means you'll have a direct role in shaping the foundation of Haast — our culture, engineering process, testing discipline, partner relationships, and the path from prototype to a real medical logistics network.

We’re looking for high-agency people who want ownership, urgency, and system-level impact from day one.

Haast is seeking an Electrical Engineer to own the avionics, power-distribution, communications, and electrical integration architecture of our aircraft.

You will design reliable electrical systems for high-power electric VTOL aircraft, translate system requirements into schematics and harness documentation, select and validate components, and support aircraft through assembly, ground testing, and flight testing. This role combines electrical design, systems engineering, hands‑on integration, and rapid troubleshooting.

• Design the aircraft’s avionics and electrical power architecture

• Develop system block diagrams, schematics, wiring diagrams, connector pinouts, and harness drawings

• Size and select wiring, connectors, fuses, contactors, power-distribution components, regulators, and protective devices

• Integrate flight controllers, propulsion systems, batteries, sensors, radios, navigation systems, actuators, payload systems, and onboard computers

• Design electrical interfaces for high-voltage propulsion and low-voltage avionics systems

• Develop grounding, shielding, isolation, and EMI/EMC strategies

• Perform voltage‑drop, current, thermal, power‑budget, and failure‑mode analyses

• Define electrical requirements, interface‑control documents, and acceptance‑test procedures

• Design or oversee the development of custom PCBs, interface boards, power‑distribution boards, and test equipment

• Conduct bench testing, hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing, ground testing, and flight‑test support

• Diagnose electrical, avionics, communications, and power‑system failures

• Work closely with mechanical, aerospace, controls, software, manufacturing, and flight‑test engineers

• Review technician‑built harnesses and electrical assemblies for compliance with engineering documentation

• Manage component obsolescence, lead‑time risks, design changes, and configuration control

• Build scalable electrical design, verification, and documentation processes

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechatronics, or a related field

• Experience designing and integrating electrical or avionics systems

• Strong understanding of power electronics, embedded systems, digital communications, and electrical protection

• Ability to create and review schematics, wiring diagrams, pinout tables, and engineering drawings

• Experience using oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, power supplies, electronic loads, and other laboratory equipment

• Experience troubleshooting complex electrical systems at the component and system levels

• Ability to work directly with hardware and support hands‑on aircraft integration

• Strong technical documentation and configuration‑management habits

• Experience with electric aircraft, drones, robotics, automotive systems, spacecraft, or other safety‑critical hardware

• Experience with high-voltage and high‑current lithium battery systems

• Experience integrating motors, ESCs, battery‑management systems, contactors, and power‑distribution units

• Experience with CAN, DroneCAN, UART, SPI, I²C, Ethernet, RS‑232, or RS‑485

• Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, CubePilot, or similar autopilot ecosystems

• Experience designing PCBs in Altium, KiCad, OrCAD, or a similar platform

• Familiarity with EMI/EMC testing and aerospace grounding and shielding practices

• Familiarity with environmental qualification, electrical derating, FMEA, and fault‑tolerant design

• Understanding of aviation development standards such as DO‑160, DO‑254, or SAE aerospace practices

• Experience taking an electrical system from prototype through low‑rate production

• The aircraft electrical architecture is safe, understandable, testable, and maintainable

• Power and avionics systems operate reliably throughout ground and flight testing

• Interfaces are thoroughly documented and electrical changes are configuration‑controlled

• Failures are diagnosed quickly and addressed through durable design improvements

• Prototype electrical systems evolve into repeatable production‑ready assemblies

We care more about agency, ownership, taste, and evidence that you can build than whether you match every bullet point. If you have worked on aircraft, drones, robots, vehicles, rockets, or other hard technical systems and want to help build something from the ground up, we want to hear from you.