About the role
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'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 software, or 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.
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.
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.
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.