Sr. Hardware Design & Bring-up Engineer

Job Summary

A highly experienced and hands-on Hardware Engineer with 8+ years of experience who can independently review schematics and PCB layouts, lead board bring-up, and diagnose and resolve board-level issues down to the component level. This is a specialised role that combines strong design-review judgement with practical bench debugging skills - the person who catches design problems before fabrication and who can make a stubborn board work on the bench.

The ideal candidate is a self-directed technical authority who can own board-level quality across analog, digital, power, and MCU-based designs, guide the wider engineering team, and be trusted to take critical hardware decisions with minimal supervision.

Responsibilities

Schematic Layout Review

• Review and approve schematic designs across analog, digital, power, and MCU-based subsystems - identifying issues at the design stage, not at bring-up.
• Conduct detailed PCB layout reviews in Altium Designer: component placement, power plane splits, high-speed routing, differential pairs, impedance control, thermal relief, and DFM/DFA compliance.
• Review BOMs for correctness, availability, footprint accuracy, and alternates.
• Assess designs for EMI/EMC, signal integrity, and power integrity risks, and recommend corrective measures before fabrication.

Board Bring-up Debug

• Lead board bring-up activities - power sequencing checks, clock and reset validation, and peripheral verification.
• Diagnose and resolve board-level issues down to component level using systematic root-cause analysis.
• Perform rework, component-level repair, and hand-soldering to isolate and fix faults on prototypes.
• Use JTAG/SWD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and multimeters to debug hardware and hardware-firmware interaction.
• Validate designs against specifications and document bring-up findings, failures, and corrective actions.

Collaboration, Quality Mentoring

• Work closely with firmware engineers to resolve hardware-firmware integration issues and confirm co-design decisions are sound.
• Coordinate with PCB fabricators, assembly houses, and component vendors on manufacturing and prototype builds.
• Mentor hardware engineers and PCB designers; conduct structured design and layout reviews with documented findings and closure tracking.
• Establish and uphold hardware design guidelines, review checklists, and quality processes to reduce single-point dependency on any individual.

Technical Skills Required

• Schematic Design: Analog, digital, power electronics, and MCU-based circuits; signal conditioning and protection circuits.
• PCB Layout Review: Altium Designer - multilayer, high-speed, impedance-controlled, mixed-signal PCB design and review.
• Board Bring-up: Power-on sequencing, clock/reset validation, peripheral verification, and systematic fault isolation.
• Debug Rework: Component-level debugging, hand-soldering, rework, and repair of prototype boards.
• Power Electronics: DC-DC converters (buck/boost/flyback), LDO design, power sequencing, inrush limiting.
• MCU SoCs: ARM Cortex-M/A (STM32, NXP i.MX, ESP32); peripherals: SPI, I2C, UART, USB, CAN, Ethernet,
• Memory Interfaces: QSPI Flash, eMMC, SDRAM, DDR2/DDR3/DDR4 - routing, termination, timing.
• High-Speed Design: USB 2.0/3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, LVDS - differential pair routing, via stitching, ground planes.
• EMI / EMC: Filter design, common-mode chokes, TVS/ESD protection, layout for emissions; CE/FCC/UL pre-compliance.
• Thermal Design: Thermal dissipation, heatsink selection, copper pours, thermal vias, junction-to-board analysis.
• Debug Tools: JTAG, SWD, oscilloscope, logic analyzer, protocol analyzers, multimeters.
• Simulation: SPICE / LTspice for power and analog; signal integrity basics (eye diagrams, reflection).

Preferred Skills (Added Advantage)

• Experience with IoT product development and IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) projects.
• Working knowledge of Embedded C/C++ and RTOS concepts (FreeRTOS or equivalent) to aid hardware-firmware debugging.
• Familiarity with communication and wireless technologies: Wi-Fi, BLE, RF, LoRa, GSM/4G, GPS.
• Experience with Python scripting for automation, test, and host-side utilities.
• Knowledge of industrial standards and compliance frameworks (CE, FCC, UL, BIS, ISO 13485 for medical).
• Exposure to a product design services or contract development environment.

Qualifications

• B.E. / B.Tech / M.E. / M.Tech in Electronics, Electronics Telecommunication, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum 8+ years of hands-on experience in hardware design, review, and board bring-up.
• Proficiency in Altium Designer is mandatory (KiCad / OrCAD experience acceptable with willingness to move to Altium).
• Good verbal and written communication in English.

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.