Founding Manager Jobs in Colorado (NOW HIRING)

About the job
Who We Are
Radiant Roadways, Inc. is a small, hungry hardware company building the RADROAD-APEX platform, a new generation of intelligent, connected roadside safety signs. Illuminated signs first with cellular and mesh comms, solar-and-battery power, radar and multi-sensor awareness, and high-output illumination, all in one ruggedized platform designed to save lives on public roadways.
Prototypes are built. Investors are committed. Two provisional patents are filed. The DOT market is wide open and ready for a serious product. We intend to take it.
We are lean and we move fast. No corporate layers, no investor theater, just a small team of engineers who own their work end-to-end supported by an elite sales team taking to regulatory sign world by storm.
The Role
We are looking for a Founding Engineer to own the electrical and systems side of RADROAD-APEX. Not a cog or apprentice but a true owner. You will be an integral part of a small engineering team of 3-5, and your fingerprints will be on every board, every spec, and every design decision that ships.
The ideal hire is someone who can take a concept all the way through execution: napkin sketch → schematic → prototype → pilot → certification → production. We care less about which line of your résumé says "Senior" and more about whether you have actually built things, broken them, fixed them, and shipped them. We want someone who can take a high level idea and turn it into a certified real world functional product.
If you are an experienced EE who has owned hardware before, great. If you are earlier in your career but have a garage, a workbench, a robotics team, a senior design project that actually worked, a side business, an FSAE car, a patent, a published hack; that counts too. We will weigh real evidence of ownership above years served. Results speak for themselves.
What You'll Own

• The complete electrical architecture: power, comms, sensing, embedded compute, and illumination across the RADROAD-APEX product line.
• Schematic design, power systems, comms, PCB layout oversight, BOM ownership, and design-for-manufacturability on every SKU.
• Specification, integration, and validation of cellular and mesh radios, solar/battery systems, radar and multi-sensor arrays, and LED drive electronics.
• Electrical test plans, EMC/EMI pre-compliance, environmental qualification, and regulatory certification strategy (FCC, UL, MUTCD-relevant standards).
• Direct collaboration with the Principal Mechanical Engineer on enclosure integration, thermal management, and ingress protection.
• Manufacturing process, supplier relationships, ICT/functional test fixtures, and production yield.
• Firmware architecture decisions and interface definitions, in partnership with future firmware hires.
• IP development - invention disclosures, patent claim review, and your name on filings where you contributed.

What We're Looking For
We care about evidence of ownership and execution far more than checkboxes. The list below describes the shape of a strong candidate, not a rigid filter.
Must-haves (in some form, by some path):

• You have personally taken at least one piece of real hardware from concept to working product. Professional, academic, or personal; we want to see it.
• Solid fundamentals in mixed-signal design: power electronics, embedded microcontrollers, and analog sensor interfacing.
• An understanding of systems engineering, requirements verification approaches, testing and validation.
• Ability to clearly and specifically communicate design intent and to both give and take design criticism.
• Knowledgeable about and comfortable with a modern electrical engineering tool and willing to use whatever the job demands. You will choose your tools.
• Bias to action over discussion. You debug with a scope before you debug with a meeting.
• Clear communicator. You can explain a design tradeoff to a Founder, a contract manufacturer, and a DOT engineer in the same week.

Strong pluses (any combination):

• Direct industry experience taking hardware to volume production.
• Familiarity with RF/wireless systems; cellular (LTE-M / NB-IoT / 4G/5G), mesh networking, or similar. IOT systems.
• Battery and solar power system design, including charge management and energy budgeting for outdoor/off-grid deployment.
• EMC/EMI design practices and regulatory certification experience.
• Radar, computer-vision, or sensor-fusion work.
• High-brightness LED drive electronics or outdoor display systems.
• Prior founding or early-employee experience at a hardware startup.
• Familiarity with MUTCD, ITE, AASHTO, or related transportation/roadway standards.
• Certification knowledge (FCC, UL)
• Ability to write your own firmware
• Using AI heavily for engineering.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license or eligibility.
• A degree in EE or a related field - or equivalent demonstrated experience. Self-taught builders with a track record are welcome to apply. If your extracurriculars (robotics, FSAE, ham radio, maker projects, patents, side ventures) show the same skills another candidate shows on a résumé, lead with them.

If you are reading this list and counting what you are missing, you are reading it wrong. Tell us what you have shipped and why you are the person to ship the next one.
Compensation - Straight Talk
We will not pretend this is a big-company offer. It isn't. The trade is real: below-market cash today in exchange for meaningful ownership and the chance to put your name on a platform we intend to make an industry standard.
Base Salary Range: $90,000-$140,000 per year, depending on experience and demonstrated ownership.
Equity: Founding-level equity grant of 0.5% - 2.5% in Radiant Roadways, with a standard four-year vest and one-year cliff. Additional equity grants are on the table as the company hits milestones and as the Founding Engineer grows the role.
Raises: Salary will move up - and move up quickly - as sales hit. We will not sit on a below-market number once revenue supports paying more. This is an explicit commitment with an 18 month timeline, not a vague promise.
Performance Compensation: Discretionary bonuses tied to product, technical, and company milestones. Compensation is reviewed at least annually.
Benefits
Time Off & Flexibility

• Generous PTO: Full-time employees accrue 20 days (160 hours) of Paid Time Off per year, which can be rolled over up to a 30-day (240-hour) cap. We encourage employees to use vacation time to enjoy life vs accruing it as a savings account. We even support longer unpaid leave because everyone needs a vision quest sometimes.
• Paid Holidays & Winter Closure: We observe 8 standard paid holidays throughout the year. In addition, the company completely shuts down with fully paid time off from December 26 through December 31.
• Paid Sick Leave: Employees receive paid sick leave in accordance with local state laws (e.g., 48 hours for Colorado employees via HFWA).
• Bereavement Leave: Up to 5 paid days for the loss of a broadly defined family member.
• Remote-First & Flex Schedules: We manage by outcomes, not "chair-time". You are free to manage your own schedule and work when you do your best work, provided you meet deadlines and core availability expectations. In-office attendance

Health & Financial

• Health Insurance Stipend: Rather than locking you into a corporate group plan, full-time employees receive a $400 monthly stipend (subject to taxes) to purchase an individual plan on the open marketplace that you own and control.
• Paid Family & Medical Leave: Access to state-run partial wage replacement programs for parental, family, and medical leave, such as Colorado FAMLI and New Jersey FLI/TDI.
• Retirement: A 401(k) plan is currently on our roadmap and will be offered to all eligible employees once launched.

Workspace & Professional Growth

• Home Office Setup: Full-time remote employees receive a one-time $1,000 stipend within their first 30 days to build out their home workspace. No receipts are required, and you keep what you buy.
• Top-Tier Equipment: The company provides a professional laptop and any role-specific software (e.g., SolidWorks) necessary for your job.
• Continuous Learning: We cover the cost of role-relevant books, and we reimburse approved expenses for conferences, training, and certifications.
• AI Training: We expect our team to be fluent in modern AI tools and will pay for any training or courses you need to get up to speed. We're happy to pay for as many tokens as you can use. We're unhappy if you do not use any.

Why This Role
This is not a role for someone optimizing cash compensation or chasing a title on a big-company org chart. It is a role for an engineer who wants to build the thing, own it, sign their name to it, and share in the upside when it works.
The risk is real - early-stage hardware companies are hard, and outcomes are never guaranteed. The reward, if we execute, is significant: equity in a platform aimed at a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure market, technical authority over the electrical architecture, and a seat at the table on every major decision.
If that trade sounds right to you, we want to talk.
Work Environment & Physical Requirements
Work is performed in a combination of office, laboratory, and light-industrial environments. The role requires the ability to:

• Operate standard office and laboratory equipment, including electronic test equipment and soldering tools.
• Occasionally lift and move equipment up to 40 pounds.
• Occasional travel to suppliers, contract manufacturers, certification labs, and pilot deployment sites.
• Remote work is allowed when the work suits it however in-office attendance is required at times.

Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.
We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.