Senior Electronics Engineer at HyLight in Paris

Job description

About HyLight Power lines, gas pipelines and railways are still inspected the way they were 50 years ago: by helicopter. Expensive, noisy, and up to a tonne of CO₂ per flight hour. We built the alternative. The HyLighter is a 12-metre autonomous airship running on hydrogen. It flies for up to 10 hours, almost silently, and spots a 1 mm defect from 25 metres up. But the airship is only half the story. Every flight brings back massive amounts of LiDAR, imagery and methane data, and that’s where the value is. Our AI turns it into what operators act on: 50+ types of defects detected automatically, and leaks pinpointed across their network. It’s not a prototype. HyLighters already fly missions for France’s largest energy and rail operators and have flown over the Palace of Versailles. Backed by Y Combinator, we just raised €13M to go from 4 airships to 15. Working at HyLight We design, build and fly every HyLighter, and turn its data into insight, all under one roof on a former airbase. Which means: You own it all the way. At a big aerospace company, you’d own a small piece of one subsystem. Here, you design it, test it, stand on the airfield when it flies, and see the client act on the data it brings back. Weeks, not years. Ideas go from whiteboard to flight test in weeks. Responsibility from day one. The founders’ average age is 27. Nobody here waits for permission. We don’t care about titles or ticking every box. We care about what you build and the perspective you bring, so if your profile is different, apply anyway. Job Summary: As an Senior Electronics Engineer, your mission is to design, develop, and integrate the embedded electronic systems that bring the HyLighter to life. You will own the entire hardware lifecycle, from custom PCB design to system integration, ensuring our airships are reliable, lightweight, and capable of operating in complex, real-world conditions. Personal Note from Josef (CTO) "This role encompasses every facet of our airship's electronics: from designing custom PCBs that optimize weight and power distribution, to integrating complex avionics, sensors, and hydrogen propulsion systems. You will collaborate daily with our software and mechanical teams as they develop new iterations of the HyLighter. With our airships pushing the boundaries of flight duration and data collection, the hardware challenge is thrilling. You won't just be plugging off-the-shelf components together; you will be architecting the custom nervous system of a revolutionary aerospace vehicle." The Mission: Under the guidance of our CTO and in collaboration with the engineering teams, your responsibilities will include: Mission 1: PCB Design & Hardware Development Design custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) from schematic capture to layout and routing. The first goal is to reduce the amount of cables and properly manage the power electronics, while redesigning key components such as the flight controller. Select appropriate components considering weight, power consumption, availability, and aerospace constraints. Design power management systems (DC/DC converters, battery management, hydrogen fuel cell integration) and signal conditioning circuits. Optimize designs for EMI/EMC compliance and thermal management. Mission 2: System Integration & Avionics Integrate flight controllers, communication links (LTE/5G, Satcom), cameras, and high-precision sensors (LiDAR, optical gas imaging) onto the HyLighter. Establish and validate communication interfaces between subsystems (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN bus). Work closely with the mechanical team to ensure optimal packaging, wire harnessing, and physical integration of electronics. Collaborate with the software team to ensure seamless hardware-software interfacing. Mission 3: Testing, Validation & Manufacturing Prototype, solder, and bench-test newly designed electronic boards. Ideate and draft test procedures to validate hardware behavior, power stability, and safety hypotheses under flight conditio