What the role involves
HyLight’s mission is to help society become more resilient to climate change by improving the observation and inspection of infrastructure.
We build HyLighters, airships that collect data across vast distances with zero emissions.
Our activities include
- Detecting methane leaks from gas infrastructures (4% of global GHG emissions)
- Inspecting power lines to prevent outages and wildfires
- By 2030, we aim to become the global leader in aerial monitoring.
- In just 3 years, we have pushed the realm of possibilities: as we have:
- Developed 8 iterations of the HyLighter
- Logged over 300 flight hours
- Secured our first inspection contracts with Europe’s largest infrastructure operators
- Joined the world’s top startup accelerator, Y Combinator
- Raised €6 millions
HyLight is aiming for a diverse and included team, if your profile doesn't fit all the description but you can bring a diverse point of view, push it forward, it will be highly appreciated.
We’re well-funded and backed by top investors, providing the resources you wish you had when building your own business. We don’t care about traditional roles or titles—just that you’re smart, proactive, and bring the same founder-level ownership and drive to help us build something massive.
Job Summary
As an 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 conditions.
- Debug complex hardware issues at the system and component level.
- Manage the manufacturing process of custom boards (PCBA) with external suppliers and ensure quality control.
Profile Sought
The following list of skills is exhaustive; while you may not perfectly fit with the profile, we high
About HyLight
HyLight builds and operates autonomous airships for long range monitoring. We focus on detecting methane leaks on pipelines and defects on power lines. Our innovation, the HyLighter, is a crossover between drone and airship technology. Like a drone, it is easily controllable and transportable. And, like an airship, it is extremely energy-efficient, enabling it to fly for up to 10 hours at slow speed (22mph) for optimal data collection which represents a range of 220miles. Today, energy infrastructure operators struggle with conducting inspections that are simultaneously: massive and precise. HyLight offers a solution to precisely detect issues on the infrastructure at an industrial scale, and all of this without emitting GHGs. We are 3 co-founders experienced in hardware and energy companies with Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Business from the best Engineering and Business School in France. We have developed 5 different flying aircrafts and signed 5 pilots programs with major energy infrastructure operators. We also have LOIs worth over $3.5M.
Full HyLight profile