ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS DESIGNER

Finiterobotics; Kitchener; Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Finiterobotics in Canada is seeking an Electrical Systems Designer to own system-level electrical architecture for our robotic platform. You will lead power distribution, power conversion, circuit protection, and integration of motors, sensors, embedded controllers, and edge compute hardware.

You will work hands-on across the development lifecycle—from schematic and PCB design to bench testing and field validation—ensuring reliable performance in outdoor environments and coordinating with

Qualifications

• Must have direct, hands-on experience designing mixed-voltage electrical systems for robotics.

Responsibilities

• Develop power distribution, power conversion and circuit protection systems.
• Design, test, and integrate custom PCBs for our power systems and control boards.
• Design, source, and validate wiring harnesses and electrical interconnects, including connector selection, conductor sizing, shielding, strain relief, and routing through moving assemblies.
• Create verification plans and validate electrical systems against functional, environmental, thermal, transient, and fault-handling requirements.
• Recognize when to build vs. buy and when to design in-house vs. outsource to meet objectives.

Skills

Mixed-voltage design

PCB design

BLDC motors

Embedded systems

Contractor management

CAN bus interfaces

EMI mitigation

Grounding and shielding

Tools

KiCAD

Altium

Job description

We are looking for an Electrical Systems Designer to own the system-level electrical architecture and design process for our robotic platform. You will work on systems ranging from lab tests to field-ready machines. Specifically, you will work on power distribution, power conversion, circuit protection, control and communications systems, wiring harnesses, electrical interconnects, and the integration of motors, sensors, embedded controllers, and edge compute hardware.

From business and product-level requirements, you will develop technical requirements, estimate timelines and costs, set milestones, define and execute tasks, select components, coordinate external design and manufacturing partners, identify technical and supply-chain risks, and independently solve problems or raise them to the team as appropriate.

The role includes hands-on involvement throughout the development lifecycle, including schematic and PCB design, prototype assembly, board bring-up, wiring and integration, bench testing, fault analysis, and validation of complete systems. You will work closely with the team to ensure that our systems perform reliably in challenging outdoor environments.

We work primarily out of our Kitchener office. Nothing replaces real-world experience, so we have robots in orchards as much as possible and we prioritize everyone on the team having a chance to see their work in action in real orchards. As a result, some travel should be anticipated for this role; however, the amount of travel can be adjusted based on team member’s interest and focus.

You will thrive in this role if you:

Want to work in a small and collaborative team where projects cut across disciplines and everyone takes ownership of our success.

Are comfortable in an early-stage and dynamic environment where tasks and priorities can shift quickly.

Enjoy hands-on work , moving from board layouts and design reviews in the office, to fabrication and assembly in the lab, as well as supported lab testing and rework.

Like to take initiative and work independently , but also know when to involve the team to tackle a problem together.

Own your part of the design process and technical decision making , building a structure to the decision making process fit for your domain.

You are unlikely to thrive in this role if:

You're looking for a proven recipe that you are repeating daily. If so, totally understand. That’s not where we are at. We are a small team trying to do things that haven't been done before. We look for approaches that have worked elsewhere and see if they could work in our application. Our plan is evolving daily.

You're hoping to avoid AI in the workplace . We are looking to smartly integrate AI into each part of the work we do. Not blindly - we respect the risks and need to implement it smartly. Done right, we've seen first hand how we can use AI to amplify what we do, not replace it.

You want to be part of a large organization. There can be a lot of perks of being part of a large organization. Better defined roles. Ability to move up the ladder. Bluntly, we're too small to have a "ladder". Even if we succeed, there probably won’t be much of a ladder to climb up. There may be a stepping stool, at best. We measure success through growth and ability, even if they don't always result in a LinkedIn promotion update. We'd rather have a small group of people that we can invest a lot in.

LOCATION

EMPLOYMENT TYPE

Permanent

Your main responsibilities:

Develop power distribution, power conversion and circuit protection systems.

Design, test, and integrate custom PCBs for our power systems and control boards.

Design, source, and validate wiring harnesses and electrical interconnects, including connector selection, conductor sizing, shielding, strain relief, and routing through moving assemblies.

Create verification plans and validate electrical systems against functional, environmental, thermal, transient, and fault-handling requirements.

Recognize when to build vs. buy and when to design in-house vs. outsource to best meet product and technical objectives.

Who You are

Must have direct, hands-on experience designing mixed-voltage electrical systems suitable for robotics applications, including battery power distribution, power conversion, circuit protection such as fusing and transient suppression, communications I/O such as CAN bus interfaces and level shifters, EMI mitigation, and system-level grounding, bonding, and shielding.

Competent using PCB design software (e.g. KiCAD, Altium) to create new designs.

Demonstrated capability to manage relationships with outside contractors and fabrication facilities to have electrical systems designed, populated, assembled, and tested.

Experience designing and integrating systems for robotics applications using BLDC motors (robot arms, UGVs, etc.) is a plus.

Embedded systems programming experience (microcontrollers, linux and/or RTOS, C/C++, etc.) is a plus to assist with bring-up, testing, and general systems programming.