Wardstone

Wardstone is a defense-tech startup building next-generation space and missile defense systems to protect the United States and its allies. We work closely with the Space Force and Air Force to move fast from concept to deployed capability. We are looking for a Business Development Intern to support customer discovery, government engagement, and strategic partnerships. We have a strong preference for candidates with prior military service working within the Air Force, Navy, or any other missile defense experience. Bonus points for graduates of U.S. military academies. What You’ll Work On Support engagement with DoD customers, labs, and program offices Help prepare briefing materials, whitepapers, and proposals (SBIR, BAAs, RFPs) Track and analyze defense programs, budgets, and acquisition pathways Assist with partner and prime contractor outreach Conduct market and competitive analysis across defense and space domains Sit in on real customer calls, strategy discussions, and reviews Potential travel to military bases and conferences domestically Bonus points for active clearance This is a hands-on role with direct exposure to how early-stage defense companies work with government customers. Who We’re Looking For Prior service members strongly preferred, especially graduates of: U.S. Air Force Academy U.S. Military Academy (West Point) U.S. Naval Academy Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in engineering, policy, economics, business, or a related field Strong written and verbal communication skills Comfortable with ambiguity and fast-moving environments Interest in national security, defense acquisition, and emerging technology Ability to work in the U.S. (citizenship required) Bonus points for experience with: DoD acquisition processes or program offices SBIR / STTR or government contracting Strategy, consulting, or defense policy Engineering background and ability to engage with engineers Why Wardstone Work on real national security problems with real customers Learn how defense startups engage with the DoD from the inside Direct mentorship from founders High ownership, real responsibility, no busywork Competitive compensation for interns

We are looking for a hands-on Electrical Engineer to lead the development of high-reliability electronics for our interceptor prototypes and future VLEO satellites. You will own everything from board-level design to power systems, sensor integration, EMI/EMC, and flight hardware integration. Expect to work directly with founders, integrate components, run tests, and ship hardware that flies and intercepts targets. If you’re excited by high-stakes engineering, rapid prototyping, and pushing physics boundaries, we are going to get along great! What You’ll Do Electrical Design & Prototyping Design, simulate, and develop PCBs for sensing, actuation, power, and avionics. Own schematic capture, layout, DFM, component selection, and vendor interaction. Develop high-reliability power systems (DC–DC, battery systems, protection circuits, transient management). Sensor and Actuator Solutions Integrate IR cameras, Radar, IMUs, GNSS, rad-hard components, and electromechanical actuators. Develop signal-conditioning circuits, sensor fusion interfaces, and low-latency sensing+actuation to enable the autopilot to control the vehicle. Flight Hardware & Harsh-Environment Design Perform thermal, vibration, and shock analysis for >100km altitude environments. Support hardware qualification: TVAC, vibe, EMI/EMC, and high-G ground testing. Embedded & System Integration Collaborate closely with embedded software engineers on microcontroller architectures, drivers, and electrical-firmware interfaces. Bring-up, debug, test, and iterate hardware in the lab using scopes, logic analyzers, DAQs, etc. Execution & Ownership Write requirements, test plans, and documentation. Take hardware from concept → prototype → test → flight-ready. Rapid debugging and converging on functional+performant solutions. Required Qualifications B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field. Strong experience with PCB design tools (KiCad, Altium, or similar). Hands-on prototyping experience: soldering, rework, bring-up, rapid iteration. Experience integrating sensors, mixed-signal electronics, or power systems. Comfort with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and test equipment. Strong fundamentals in circuit analysis, signal integrity, noise, grounding, and EMI/EMC. Ability to own hardware end-to-end: design, build, test, debug, iterate. US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Nice to Haves Experience with IR cameras, high-speed digital buses, or RF systems. Background in aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, or satellites. Knowledge of high-G design, radiation effects, or space-environment electronics. Embedded firmware experience (C/C++, STM32/Teensy/PIC/ESP32, RTOS). Familiarity with power systems, motor drives, or actuator control. Experience with MIL-STD-461, DO-160, or NASA/ESA flight hardware standards.

We are looking for a Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer to build and own the entire guidance, navigation, and control stack for Wardstone’s interceptors. You will design the necessary development tools and flight control algorithms to ensure that Wardstone’s interceptors hit their target. This is a highly cross-functional role. You will work closely with sensing, actuation, and propulsion engineers to deliver a performant autopilot. What You’ll Do Guidance Algorithm Development Design guidance laws for midcourse and terminal homing under high-speed, non-linear dynamics. Implement proportional navigation, augmented PN, pursuit/lead guidance, and/or optimal control methods. Develop intercept prediction algorithms using sensed tracking and state estimation inputs. Flight Controls & Actuator Modeling Design and tune control loops for aerodynamic surfaces, thrust vectoring, or impulse-based actuators. Model actuator bandwidth, latency, saturation, and uncertainties. Implement robust control strategies for high-G, high-rate maneuvers. State Estimation & Sensor Fusion Implement EKFs/UKFs for fusing IR sensor data, IMU, GPS, and onboard timing signals. Build prediction and filtering pipelines that operate reliably under noise, jitter, and thermal effects. Develop relative navigation and target-state estimation algorithms. Simulation & 6DOF Modeling Build and maintain high-fidelity 6DOF simulations of interceptor dynamics. Integrate aerodynamic models (> Mach 1), control response, propulsion events, and sensor models. Run Monte Carlo and worst-case analyses to drive design decisions. Hardware-in-the-Loop & Real-World Testing Develop GNC software that runs on embedded hardware with hard real-time constraints. Conduct hardware-in-the-loop tests with scene generators and real sensors. Support ground-based intercept tests, including flight software tuning, data collection, and analysis. Cross-Functional Collaboration and Vehicle Design Influence the Vehicle Design through controllability requirements. Work with perception engineers to integrate vision-based tracking into guidance algorithms. Work with propulsion engineers on control authority, ΔV budgets, and impulse timing. Work with embedded engineers to implement deterministic and reliable real-time GNC pipelines. Required Qualifications B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Controls, or similar. Deep understanding of classical and modern control theory. Experience building 6DOF flight simulations (MATLAB, Simulink, Python, C++). Strong background in state estimation, nonlinear dynamics, filtering, or guidance algorithms. Hands-on experience tuning controllers for UAVs, rockets, missiles, or autonomous systems. Familiarity with coordinate frames, quaternion math, and navigation transformations. US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Nice to Haves Experience with high-speed interceptors, hypersonics, or missile guidance. Familiarity with aerodynamics, actuator modeling, or impulse-based control. Experience with optimal control (MPC, LQR variants, differential games). Experience with embedded real-time systems, RTOS, or high-rate control loops. Experience integrating perception (IR/EO, CV algorithms) into closed-loop guidance. Experience with MIL-STD flight hardware, environmental testing, or flight qualification.

Overview Wardstone is looking for a Mechanical and Structural Engineer to own the mechanical architecture and structural integrity of our first missile interceptor, Hailstorm. This role includes missile interceptor sizing, outer mold line (OML) design, actuator mechanics, internal packaging, and ensuring survivability under extreme flight conditions. You will design, analyze, prototype, test, and iterate mechanical systems and structures capable of withstanding high aerodynamic loads, intense vibration, and significant thermal stress. You will work side-by-side with the founders, propulsion, aerodynamic, and controls engineers. You will own the on-vehicle mechanical and structural systems from conceptual design to real world demonstration. What You’ll Do Interceptor Design & Structural Analysis Size the missile interceptor for extreme flight, launch, and maneuver loads. Perform comprehensive structural and vibration analysis to ensure vehicle integrity during all dynamic phases of flight. Analyze and mitigate dynamic loads, shock, and aeroelastic effects. Mechanical Design & Packaging Lead the Outer Mold Line (OML) design to meet aerodynamic, kinematic, and volumetric requirements. Design primary and secondary structures, including critical hardpoint definition and custom bracket design. Generate and manage complex CAD models and assemblies for the entire vehicle system. Cross-Functional Integration Interface closely with aerodynamics, propulsion, and thermal engineering teams to balance structural strength with heat dissipation and drag reduction. Collaborate with electrical and propulsion teams for optimal routing, packaging, and mounting of critical subsystems. Manufacturing, Materials, & Vendor Management Drive material selection for high-performance applications (e.g., advanced composites, high-strength alloys, high-temp materials). Work directly with external vendors and machine shops to procure components, ensuring quality and tolerance standards are met. Utilize hands-on machining experience (lathe, mill) for rapid in-house prototyping and test fixture creation. Required Qualifications B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field. 3+ years of industry experience. Strong demonstrated CAD proficiency with experience managing complex vehicle assemblies. Deep background in structural analysis, including FEA for static, dynamic, and vibration loads. Experience with material selection for high-stress or aerospace applications. Hands-on fabrication and machining experience (manual or CNC mill and lathe). US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Nice to Haves Experience designing hardware for missiles, UAVs, rockets, or other high-speed aerospace systems. Previous experience managing external vendors, suppliers, and manufacturing partners. Familiarity with OML design and aerodynamic packaging constraints. Exposure to MIL-STD testing (thermal, vibration, shock, environmental). Experience building and testing your own structural test rigs. About the interview 15-30 min phone intro with CEO 1 Hour phone deep dive with CTO 1 Hour in person with CEO

We are looking for a Propulsion and High-Energy Systems Engineer to own the development of the impulse-generation systems that power our first product, Hailstorm. This includes gas generators, micro-thrusters, solid propulsion elements, high-pressure systems, fast-acting valves, detonation-assisted dispersal systems, and high-temperature/pressure fluid dynamics. You will design, analyze, prototype, test, and iterate propulsion and dispersal hardware capable of producing extreme accelerations, high mass flow, and low latency response times. You will work side-by-side with the founders, mechanical, electrical, and controls engineers. You will own the on-vehicle high energy systems from concept to demonstration What You’ll Do High-Impulse System Design Design/select compact propulsion and impulse systems: gas generators, cold-gas thrusters, and solid micro-motors. Model combustion, mass flow, thrust curves, chamber pressures, and heat transfer. Evaluate tradeoffs between solid, liquid, or other propulsion architectures. High-Pressure & High-G Hardware Design pressure vessels, regulators, burst disks, check valves, fast-response actuators, and timing mechanisms. Simulate structural integrity under high G’s and perform empirical testing. Integrate sensors (pressure, temperature, vibration) for test instrumentation and feedback. Dispersal & Impulse Transfer Mechanisms Co-design the systems responsible for deploying Wardstone’s kinetic interceptor solution. Model shock propagation, material acceleration, and high-velocity ejecta characteristics. Work closely with the detonation/energetics engineer to integrate hybrid or explosive-augmented systems. Simulation & Analysis Use CFD, CEA, FEA, and custom simulation tools to evaluate propulsion behavior. Run data-driven design cycles: test → instrument → analyze → redesign. Define requirements for Δv, rise time, thrust profiles, and thermal durability. Testing & Qualification Plan and execute high-G tests, pressure tests, thermal tests, and impulse characterization. Work with external test ranges, explosive facilities, and instrumentation teams. Develop test fixtures, data acquisition setups, and high-speed video capture systems. Integration & Full System Ownership Collaborate with mechanical engineers on structures that withstand high impulse loads. Collaborate with electrical engineers on ignition, actuation, and safety interlocks. Collaborate with controls engineers on predictor models and impulse sequencing. Required Qualifications B.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, Chemical Engineering, or related field. Demonstrated experience with propulsion design, combustion, energetics, or high-pressure systems. Strong modeling experience: CEA, CFD (OpenFOAM/ANSYS/COMSOL), MATLAB/Python, or equivalent. Hands-on test experience: ignition, valves, tanks, pressure systems, or propulsion rigs. Deep understanding of flow, combustion, heat transfer, and structural limits. US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Nice to Haves Experience with solid motors, gas generators, pyrotechnics, shaped charges, or hybrid propulsion. Experience designing hardware for missiles, UAVs, rockets, or aerospace systems. Exposure to MIL-STD testing (thermal, vibration, shock, environmental). Experience with high-speed DAQ, strain gauges, thermocouples, and high-speed cameras. Hands-on build experience: machining, pressure plumbing, test fixture design.

We are looking for a Sensing and Perception Engineer to own Wardstone’s entire sensing system from sensor selection and integration to low-level image pipelines to real-time target tracking. You will work at the intersection of sensor hardware, computer vision algorithms, embedded systems, optics, and vehicle guidance. This role is central to Wardstone’s mission. Your system determine whether an interceptor knows where to go! You will work directly with founders, build test rigs, run high-speed experiments, and ship perception systems into hardware that performs real intercepts. What You’ll Do IR & EO Sensor Integration Integrate sensor modules into avionics architecture. Own sensor selection, FOV analysis, lensing, NUC, calibration workflows, and driver integration. Develop high-reliability camera interfaces: SPI/I2C, MIPI, USB3, Ethernet, GMSL, or custom buses. Real-Time Computer Vision & Tracking Build perception pipelines capable of tracking high-speed objects with extremely low latency. Implement target detection, centroid extraction, filtering, gating, and motion-compensation algorithms. Develop robust tracking under noise, flare, thermal clutter, high dynamic range, and glint effects. Sensor Fusion & Estimation Fuse IR/EO data with IMU, GPS, and onboard state estimators. Work with controls engineers to build perception-to-guidance interfaces for closed loop control. Build EKF/UKF filters, temporal alignment, and prediction modules. Verification & Validation Design sensor test rigs: hot/cold targets, blackbody references, collimators, high-G mounts. Conduct hardware-in-the-loop tests with simulated targets, scene generators, and flight dynamics models. Collect, label, and analyze high-speed footage from ground+flight experiments, HAB flights, and tracking tests. Stress-test perception under temperature, vibration, and shock conditions. Required Qualifications B.S. in EE, CS, Physics, Robotics, or similar. Strong experience with IR/EO camera systems, Radar, imaging physics, calibration, and noise modeling. Deep proficiency in computer vision (OpenCV, NumPy, SciPy, C++/Python). Experience implementing real-time detection and tracking algorithms. Understanding of signal processing, filtering, sensor fusion, and coordinate transforms. Hands-on testing experience using thermal cameras, radar, calibration targets, or optical equipment. US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Nice to Haves Experience working with LWIR sensors (FLIR Boson/Tau, ULIS, Teledyne, etc.) or Radar Units. Background in missile seekers, UAV tracking, air-to-air systems, or autonomous robotics under high speed. Experience with GPU acceleration (CUDA, TensorRT), embedded systems, or FPGA-based vision pipelines. Familiarity with optical modeling, lens design, radiometry, and atmospheric attenuation. Knowledge of IR scene modeling, signature tracking, or synthetic target generation. Experience with high-dynamic-range thermal environments or high-G mount design. Exposure to defense/aerospace sensor standards or MIL-STD environments.

We are looking for a Simulation & Modeling Engineer who will build and own Wardstone’s end-to-end physics models: orbital mechanics, interceptor trajectories, guidance/dynamics, dispersion behavior, aerodynamic models, sensor models, thermal effects, and Monte Carlo analysis. This role is central to Wardstone’s entire engineering process. Your models will define vehicle design and intercept feasibility, ΔV budgets, terminal constraints, survival envelopes, effectiveness, and system-level design trades. You will work directly with the founders GNC, Propulsion, Sensor, and Avionics engineers to connect your models to real test data and ensure every design choice is grounded in physics. What You’ll Do Interceptor Dynamics Modeling Build high-fidelity 6DOF models of interceptor trajectories and target maneuvers. Model aerodynamic forces, flight regimes (subsonic → hypersonic), and uncertainties. Implement full state propagation with drag, atmospheric effects, gravity, and actuator limits. Orbital Mechanics & VLEO Modeling Implement orbital propagators, Lambert solvers, and multi-body dynamics. Model VLEO drag, solar flux, eclipse cycles, thermal conditions, and station-keeping budgets. Quantify ΔV requirements for intercept geometries and constellation designs. Guidance, Control & Sensor Model Integration Integrate GNC algorithms into simulation environments. Model perception pipelines: IR signatures, SNR, glint, thermal clutter, and atmospheric attenuation. Build closed-loop simulations with perception → guidance → actuation → dynamics → intercept logic. Hailstorm Dispersal Modeling Model particle trajectories, dispersal cones, cloud expansion, and lethality envelopes. Model impulse delivery mechanisms: blast, thrust, or hybrid dispersal events. Work with energetics engineers on momentary high-G propagation and multi-body interactions. Monte Carlo & Probabilistic Analysis Run large-scale Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate hit probability, robustness, and margins. Develop parameter sweeps for timing, sensing errors, aerodynamic uncertainties, and ΔV constraints. Produce data-driven design recommendations for system architecture decisions. Simulation Infrastructure & Visualization Build clean, modular simulation tools in MATLAB/Python/C++ for internal engineering teams. Develop visualization tools (2D, 3D, orbital views) used for engineering and visual storytelling. Maintain code quality, performance, and model usability across the engineering org. Required Qualifications B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or similar. Strong experience with dynamic simulations (MATLAB, Simulink, Python, C++, Julia, or equivalent). Deep understanding of orbital mechanics, flight dynamics, or missile/rocket modeling. Experience with numerical methods, ODE/PDE solvers, filtering, integration stability, and optimization. Ability to validate simulated results against analytical solutions or experimental data. Strong intuition for physics and comfort working with incomplete or noisy data. US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Nice to Haves Experience modeling hypersonic flow, ablation, or high-enthalpy environments. Experience with high-speed particle or fragment modeling. Experience connecting simulation to hardware-in-the-loop systems. Familiarity with CFD tools (OpenFOAM, SU2, ANSYS Fluent). Experience with sensor modeling: IR/EO tracking, radar, radiometric models, or synthetic scene generation. Experience building custom visualization pipelines or simulation frameworks.

Wardstone is a space defense-tech startup building next-generation systems to protect the United States and its allies from advanced missile threats. We design, build, and test both ground and space-based hardware. We’re looking for engineering interns from top schools who want to work on real world systems from concept to testing. What You’ll Work On Depending on your background and interests, you may work on: Physics-based simulation and modeling (orbital mechanics, intercept dynamics, guidance & control) Hardware prototyping and testing (mechanical, electrical, propulsion, sensing) Embedded software, controls, or autonomy Sensor systems (IR / EO), perception, and tracking Data analysis from test campaigns System-level trade studies and design reviews Interns are treated as engineers. Your work will directly with founders and full-time engineers, influence flight hardware, simulations, and participate in field tests. Who We’re Looking For Currently pursuing a degree in engineering, physics, or a related technical field (Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Robotics, Computer Science, Physics) Demonstrated delivery on previous extracurricular engineering projects Curious, self-directed, and motivated by real-world impact MATLAB or Python for modelling and data analytics US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED Bonus points for experience with: Controls, GNC, or orbital mechanics Embedded systems or hardware bring-up IR sensors, computer vision, or signal processing Hands-on lab, shop, or field testing experience Why Wardstone Work on problems that matter at the national security level Direct mentorship from founders and full time engineers Exposure to the full engineering lifecycle from concept to testing Fast pace, high ownership, minimal bureaucracy Competitive compensation for interns