General Interest - Talent Network
This Isn't a Catch-All Application:
If your background fits one of our open roles... apply there. Those postings exist for a reason and you'll get evaluated faster through the right pipeline.
This page is for people who don't see their exact role listed but belong at Aurelius. We're building a short list of people we want to pull from when new roles open, when we spin up internships, or when the right person shows up before the req does.
We review every submission. If you're not a fit, you'll know. If you are, you'll hear from us — maybe this month, maybe in six.
Who We Are:
Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge-deployed robotics systems using directed energy for counter-UAS.
We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.
We're a small team of ~10 engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.
Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate; small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.
In addition to our San Francisco lab/office, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.
Who We're Looking For
You probably fall into one of these lanes:
1. Engineers Who Build Things
You're an ME, integration engineer, systems engineer, controls engineer, or something adjacent — and you've actually built hardware that went into the real world. Maybe you worked on power systems at a FSAE Electric team and went pro. Maybe you've been at a defense startup or eVTOL company where you owned a subsystem end to end. Maybe you're still in school but you've built more in your garage or lab than most people build in their first three years of work.
We care about what you've built, not where you went to school. If your experience is primarily simulation, analysis, or ML engineering, this isn't the right fit.
Where you might come from: SpaceX, Anduril, Shield AI, Joby, Archer, Tesla, Relativity, small defense hardware shops, university research labs, racing teams, or your own projects.
2. Veterans With Technical or Operational Depth
You served and you're looking to stay in the fight from the builder side. Maybe you were a combat engineer, Special Operations, EOD, fire controlman, or had a technical MOS/rate. Maybe you ran operations or logistics in environments where things had to work the first time. We value military discipline and bias for action, but we're not collecting DD-214s — we need people who can contribute technically or operationally from day one.
3. Defense Business Operations
Proposal managers, capture managers, contract administrators, or BD professionals who have actually won contracts with Army, Navy, Marines, or MDA. Not people who worked at a prime and attended reviews. People who wrote the winning sections, managed the compliance matrix, or ran a capture from qualification to award. IDIQ and OTA experience is a plus. If you've only worked commercial or big-company BD where a team of 40 touches a single proposal, we're probably not the right fit.
4. Technical Operators
Growth, strategy, talent, mission operations — whatever you call it, you're the person who makes a small team punch way above its weight. Maybe you've scaled hiring at a defense startup and actually know the difference between a power electronics engineer and a semiconductor process engineer. Maybe you've run field operations, managed test campaigns, or built the operational backbone that lets engineers focus on engineering. Maybe you're a strategy or growth person who's worked in deep tech and understands long DoD sales cycles, IDIQ task orders, and what it takes to go from prototype to program of record. We don't need generalists who "wear many hats." We need people who've operated in high-output, resource-constrained environments and made things move faster than they had any right to.
5. Interns — But Not the "Get Coffee" Kind
You're still in school or recently graduated and you've done something exceptional. You led your FSAE team's electrical system. You built a CNC machine in your apartment. You published research on fiber lasers. You deployed code to a real robot. We don't have a formal internship program yet but we're building one, and we want to know who's out there. If your resume is mostly coursework and club memberships, hold off and come back when you've built something.
What's True Across All of These
U.S. citizenship required. We work on classified programs and every role requires the ability to obtain a security clearance.
You'll be in San Francisco or Detroit. We're not remote. The hardware is here and so are you.
Bias for action over credentials. We've hired people without degrees who outperform PhDs. We've also hired PhDs who get their hands dirty. What matters is whether you build things or talk about building things.
Startup pace is real. Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we sprint toward a demo or field test, the team goes hard — nights, weekends, whatever it takes. When the sprint lands, we recover. If that sounds like a warning, this isn't for you. If it sounds like home, keep reading.
What to Include in Your Application
Don't send a generic resume and cover letter. We read these and generic applications go to the bottom.
Instead, tell us:
Which lane above fits you best and why you think you'd be a fit at Aurelius specifically — not just any defense startup.
The hardest thing you've built or shipped. What was it, what was your role, and what made it hard?
Your resume or LinkedIn — but only after #1 and #2. Those matter more.
Why Aurelius
Build more in 12 months than most people build in 5 years
Career velocity is real — Erick Brito went from Founding Robotics Engineer to Lead in 12 months
Work on a problem that actually matters — small drones are changing warfare and directed energy is the asymmetric answer
~20 people total, no layers, no politics, no waiting for permission
Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country — California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.
If you're not sure whether to apply here or to a specific role, apply to the specific role. This page is for the people who know they belong here but don't see their exact seat yet.