HELP US TACKLE THE GROWING WILDFIRE CRISIS WITH THE LATEST ADVANCEMENTS IN AI AND IOT
WHO WE ARE
The challenge: Every minute matters in wildfire response. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires—with longer fire seasons, drier fuels, and more extreme weather—new ignitions can spread rapidly, putting communities, critical infrastructure, and ecosystems at risk. Today, many wildfires are first reported by members of the public, meaning it can take valuable time to detect a fire, confirm its location and size, and mobilize responders. Fire agencies need faster, more reliable ways to detect, verify, and pinpoint new ignitions so they can respond quickly and prevent small fires from becoming catastrophic events.
About Pano AI: Pano AI is the leader in AI-powered wildfire detection and intelligence, helping fire professionals detect, respond to, and contain wildfires faster and more safely. Our platform combines advanced hardware, software, artificial intelligence, satellite imagery, and other data sources to provide real-time situational awareness and actionable intelligence. Using a network of ultra-high-definition, 360-degree cameras positioned across high vantage points, Pano AI delivers a real-time view of wildfire activity, enabling faster, more informed decision-making when every second counts.
We are a team of more than 175 people working in a hybrid-remote environment across North America and Australia, with headquarters in San Francisco. Our customers include government agencies, utilities, insurers, and private landowners who rely on Pano AI to help protect people, property, and natural landscapes. Pano AI currently serves customers across the United States, Australia, and Canada, monitoring more than 50 million acres worldwide.
Our work has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative AI Companies in 2023 https://www.fastcompany.com/90846670/most-innovative-companies-artificial-intelligence-2023 and one of the World's Most Innovative Companies in 2026 https://www.fastcompany.com/91502951/pano-ai-most-innovative-companies-2026, ranking #1 in Sustainability. We have also been named to TIME's https://www.linkedin.com/company/time/ list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025 https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289577/pano-ai/ and recognized by MIT Technology Review https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/01/1104375/2024-climate-tech-companies-pano-ai-fire-detecting-ai/as one of the top climate technology companies to watch.
Backed by $89 million in funding https://techcrunch-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techcrunch.com/2023/07/10/pano-series-a-extension/amp/ from leading investors including Giant Ventures, Liberty Mutual Ventures, Tokio Marine Future Fund, Congruent Ventures, Initialized Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and T-Mobile Ventures, we're building technology that helps communities around the world become more resilient to wildfire. Learn more at www.pano.ai http://www.pano.ai.
THE ROLE
Pano is searching for a Electrical Design Engineer (Electrical/Computer Eng) to join our Hardware Engineering team. The Pano Station is a sophisticated integration of off-the-shelf hardware modules: components, cameras, radios, power systems, sensors, and enclosure components—assembled into a system that must operate reliably, autonomously, and continuously for long term deployments on remote mountaintops in extreme weather conditions.
This role spans the full hardware development lifecycle. You will own your subsystems end-to-end: evaluating and selecting the right components, integrating them together, validating and stress-testing those integrations, and driving readiness all the way through to production. At Pano, there is no narrow specialization, you will be the technical owner of your hardware from concept to shipping product.
Reporting to the Sr Manager of Hardware Engineering, you will be a key contributor to a small, experienced team and have a direct impact on the reliability and performance of hardware deployed in the field protecting communities from wildfire.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
Component Selection & System Integration
- Select and evaluate off-the-shelf hardware modules (compute, cameras, radios, power management, sensors) against performance, reliability, environmental, and supply chain requirements
- Analyze datasheets to understand component limits and failure modes; design integrations that respect those boundaries across power, thermal, signal, and mechanical interfaces
- Bring up integrated assemblies, characterize behavior across operating conditions, and validate against system requirements
Validation, Stress Testing & Reliability
- Author and execute test plans for NPI gate reviews (PROTO, EVT, DVT, PVT) covering functional verification, environmental performance, long-term reliability, and certification/compliance (FCC, safety, cellular)
- Execute stress and margin tests to find the edges of reliable operation; the Pano Station must operate unattended for 5+ years in harsh outdoor environments
Debug, Triage & Root Cause Analysis
- Lead hardware triage from first symptom to verified fix—across engineering builds, production runs, and field deployments
- Apply systematic RCA to distinguish integration issues, component escapes, environmental failures, and firmware interactions; document findings in clear, structured reports
- Use lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power analyzers, thermal cameras, protocol analyzers) to isolate failure mechanisms at the signal and system level
Production Readiness & Sustaining
- Define acceptance criteria and transfer test scripts and methodologies to contract manufacturers for production
- Support ECOs for sustaining issues, component end-of-life transitions, and supply chain changes post-launch
WHAT YOU’LL BRING
Must Have
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or closely related engineering discipline
- 5+ years of professional hardware engineering experience with ownership across multiple phases of the product development lifecycle
- Strong EE fundamentals: datasheet analysis, electrical specification evaluation, and system-level reasoning about power, signal integrity, and thermal behavior
- Demonstrated ability to debug and root-cause hardware issues at the system and integration level using standard lab equipment
- Hands-on NPI experience—has taken hardware through multiple full EVT-to-PVT cycles
- Clear written and verbal communication; able to write structured RCA reports and articulate risk to cross-functional stakeholders
Nice to Have
- Mechanical engineering experience/familiarity/willingness to learn (as a small startup, we all wear many hats)
- Familiarity with reliability engineering concepts: derating, MTBF, environmental stress screening, HALT/HASS
- Experience evaluating components for long-lifecycle or harsh-environment applications (industrial, outdoor, automotive, or similar)
- Experience with cellular/LTE, Wi-Fi, or wireless module integration and RF-adjacent debugging
- Exposure to camera systems, ISP pipelines, or vision hardware
- Experience working with contract manufacturers and supporting production yield improvement
- Experience writing automated test or validation scripts in Python (or equivalent) to verify hardware behavior and stress integration points
Final compensation for regular full-time employees is determined by a variety of factors, including job-related qualifications, education, experience, skills, knowledge, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, regular full-time roles are eligible for equity. Benefits are tailored to local market standards and statutory requirements in the employee's country of employment, and may include health coverage, retirement or pension contributions, and paid time off. Specific benefit details will be shared during the interview process.