Hardware Engineer
Luton (onsite)
12 month initial contract
All candidates must be eligible for UK SC clearance
Our client, a specialist in the Defence & Security sector, is currently seeking experienced Contract Hardware Engineers to support the development of next-generation Electronic Warfare and Defensive Aids Systems deployed on fast jets, helicopters, UAVs, naval and land-based platforms.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design and develop complex digital and mixed-signal hardware solutions for defence and aerospace applications.
- Define hardware architectures for FPGA, SoC and processor-based systems.
- Capture schematics and support PCB layout activities for high-speed, high-performance digital designs.
- Design and verify high-speed interfaces including DDR memory, PCIe, Ethernet and similar protocols.
- Integrate FPGA, processor, software and firmware components into complete system solutions.
- Perform design analysis, simulation, validation and verification activities.
- Support hardware bring-up, debugging and root-cause investigation at board and system level.
- Work closely with Systems, Firmware, Software, RF, Mechanical and Production Engineering teams.
- Support environmental, EMC/EMI and qualification testing in accordance with defence and aerospace standards.
- Produce technical documentation, design evidence and progress reporting in accordance with structured engineering lifecycles.
- Support customer demonstrations, integration activities, acceptance testing and trials.
Job Requirements:
Essential Experience
- Proven experience designing high-speed digital electronics within aerospace, defence or other safety/mission-critical industries.
- Strong background in FPGA and SoC-based hardware architectures (Xilinx, AMD, Intel/Altera or equivalent).
- Experience designing complex multilayer PCBs incorporating:
- High-speed serial interfaces
- High-performance processors
- DDR memory subsystems
- FPGA-based signal processing solutions
- Hands-on experience with schematic capture and PCB design tools such as:
- Altium Designer
- Xpedition/Expedition
- OrCAD
- Practical board-level debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, spectrum analysers and protocol analysers.
- Experience integrating hardware, firmware and software on complex embedded systems.
- Strong understanding of signal integrity, power integrity, and timing considerations in high-speed digital designs.
- Experience developing products to demanding EMC, EMI and environmental requirements.
- Ability to interpret, decompose, and implement system requirements into robust hardware solutions.
- Experience supporting verification, validation and qualification activities.
Desirable Experience
- Electronic Warfare, Radar, RF, Communications, or Sensor systems.
- Safety-critical or mission-critical product development.
- FPGA signal processing architectures.
- DO-254, DEF STAN, MIL-STD or equivalent aerospace and defence standards.
- Hardware design reviews and technical leadership activities.
- Design for Manufacture (DfM), Design for Test (DfT) and Design for Reliability (DfR).
If you are a Hardware Engineer with a passion for defence and security technologies, we would love to hear from you. Apply now to join our client's team of experts in pushing the boundaries of hardware engineering.
