Embedded Systems Engineer

Unicorn Biotechnologies; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Product ownership

Pension with SIPP

Weekly pastries

All-hands lunches

Autonomy culture

Job summary

Unicorn Biotechnologies is seeking an electronics engineer to design, test and manufacture electronics and embedded systems across our products and platforms in Sheffield. You will prototype in-house, translate prototypes into production-ready boards, and drive rapid iteration from concept to working board.

You will write production firmware in C/C++ on STM32/ARM microcontrollers and enable robust inter-device communication (CAN, Ethernet, serial).

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience across electronics hardware design (schematic capture, PCB layout, component selection) and firmware development (C/C++ on microcontrollers such as STM32/ARM).
• Competence with PCB design tools (Altium, KiCad) and hands-on prototyping (soldering, rework, bench testing).
• Strong understanding of real-time systems, interrupts, peripherals, and hardware abstraction layers.
• Experience with CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet/TCP-IP communication.
• Comfort interfacing embedded systems with Python backend or REST APIs.

Responsibilities

• Design, test and manufacture electronics and embedded systems across products and platforms.
• Prototype in in-house electronics workshop and drive rapid iteration from concept to working board.
• Design for manufacture: BOM optimisation and coordination with contract manufacturers.
• Write and maintain production firmware in C/C++ on STM32/ARM microcontrollers for pumps, valves, sensors, actuators.
• Design inter-device communication (CAN, Ethernet, serial) across networked instruments.
• Support EMC, CE, UL compliance testing and design for long-term reliability.

Skills

Electronics hardware design

Firmware development in C/C++

PCB prototyping

Soldering & bench testing

Altium

KiCad

CAN protocol

Ethernet/TCP-IP

Python basics

Tools

STM32/ARM development

CAN bus interface

Job description

Anticipated start date: As soon as possible

Salary Band: £40k - £55k (depending on experience)

Full Time, On-site, Sheffield, UK

WE VALUE

• Engineers who care about what they build, not just how.
• Clear thinking, pragmatism, and sound judgment over buzzwords.
• A bias for action to build products with customer value.
• Friendly, organised, efficient, and enthusiastic people with a can-do attitude.
• People who take responsibility and follow through on problems.
• Using the right tools, including AI, to work both hard and smart.
• Low-ego individuals who love asking questions & go above and beyond to help the team succeed.

THE ROLE

You'll work alongside our principal engineer and the engineering team to design, test and manufacture the electronics and embedded systems across our products and platforms. Day-to-day, that means:

• Schematic design and PCB layout for control boards, sensor interfaces, power distribution, and system interconnects.
• Prototyping and validating designs in our in-house electronics workshop, driving rapid iteration from concept to working board.
• Design for manufacture: translating prototypes into production-ready boards, managing BOM optimisation, and coordinating with contract manufacturers.
• Writing and maintaining production firmware in C/C++ on STM32/ARM microcontrollers, real-time control of pumps, valves, sensors, and actuators.
• Designing and implementing inter-device communication (CAN, Ethernet, serial) across networked instruments.
• Supporting EMC, CE, and UL compliance testing and designing for long-term reliability in regulated environments.

You'll have high autonomy and direct influence on technical decisions. The learning curve is steep, but you'll expand your skills faster here than in most environments, and everything you build ships to real customers.

NEED TO HAVE

• Demonstrated experience across both electronics hardware design (schematic capture, PCB layout, component selection) and firmware development (C/C++ on microcontrollers such as STM32/ARM).
• Competence with PCB design tools (Altium, KiCad, or equivalent) and hands-on prototyping skills: comfortable with soldering (THT and SMD), rework, and bench testing.
• Strong understanding of real-time systems, interrupts, peripherals, and hardware abstraction layers.
• Experience with communication protocols: CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet/TCP-IP.
• Comfort interfacing embedded systems with higher-level application layers (Python, REST APIs, MQTT, or similar).
• Evidence of taking designs from concept through to production hardware running deployed firmware.
• Experience developing or maintaining full-stack software with a Python backend.
• A methodical approach to debugging, testing, and documentation.

NICE TO HAVE

• Comfort using AI-assisted dev tools (Cursor, Claude Code) to accelerate workflows.
• Exposure to industrial control, robotics, or bioprocess instrumentation.
• Understanding of compliance testing (EMC, CE, UL) and design for reliability.
• Prior experience in a startup or scale-up environment.

While we consider applicants from any relevant background, you will likely have >3 years of relevant industry experience.

BENEFITS

• Product ownership: your hardware and firmware ship on systems deployed in real labs, helping scientists advance real science.
• Pension with SIPP options and support managing your investments if you want it.
• Weekly team pastries and monthly all-hands lunches.
• A culture that values autonomy, accountability and responsibility.
• Based in Sheffield, the UK's greenest city, on the doorstep of the Peak District, <15 minutes from our purpose-built R&D and manufacturing facility.

ABOUT US

Unicorn Biotechnologies is building the infrastructure for autonomous cell biology. We combine hardware, software, machine intelligence and biology into powerful, easy-to-use platforms that let scientists and manufacturers standardise, scale, and automate their workflows. We're a Sheffield-based team with deep R&D foundations, now scaling to meet growing demand from our global customer base. You'll have real ownership over your work, genuine influence on product direction, and the chance to shape a company at a scale-up inflection point.

JOIN OUR TEAM

Unicorn Biotechnologies is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a working environment that embraces inclusion and diversity.