Hardware Platform Engineer

Future Talent Group; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Future Talent Group is seeking a Hardware Platform Engineer (Edge Compute) in Bristol. You’ll decide what compute kit goes into the field, balancing workloads, power and platform options for each project.

You’ll build reference architectures, standardise kits, and maintain reference systems alongside platform engineers. Occasional UK/abroad exercises keep you close to field deployments.

Strong Linux, networking knowledge and GPU awareness are essential for this hands-on role.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience selecting, building and running compute hardware.
• Strong Linux skills (this isn’t an embedded development role)
• Working understanding of networking across LAN, WAN, Wi‑Fi and satcom
• Awareness of GPUs and edge inference, and a real interest in what’s coming next
• Happy with hands-on kit and comfortable in the field

Responsibilities

• Selecting hardware and recommending the right platform for each project
• Building and maintaining reference architectures and reference systems
• Standardising kit so it’s supportable and reproducible, not a one-off
• Provisioning and maintaining the engineering infrastructure
• Occasionally supporting exercises in the UK and abroad as the kit expert

Skills

Compute hardware

Linux

Networking

GPU awareness

Field deployment

Job description

Hardware Platform Engineer (Edge Compute)

Bristol, Hybrid

Do you get genuinely excited when a new GPU or edge module is announced? Would you like to be the person who decides what kit actually goes into the field?

Our client is one of Europe’s fastest-growing defence and national security engineering businesses having grown from 30 to around 200 people. They build edge communications, RF and sensing, and AI systems for defence, national security, emergency response and critical national infrastructure. Earlier this year they set up a dedicated Platform Engineering team to build reusable technology across all their projects, and this role sits at the heart of it.

The role

You’ll be the go-to person for any project team that needs to deploy compute in the field. Teams will come to you with their workload, power and compute requirements, and you’ll tell them what to build on. You’ll do that by holding a set of known-good options across small, medium and large hardware tiers. You’ll also keep reference systems on the shelf so engineers can start testing while their own kit is on order.

You’ll work closely with the platform engineers to make sure anything that runs in the cloud also runs on edge hardware. Upcoming work includes tactical soldier systems (situational awareness, comms and edge inference on sensors) and fitting out a brand new test and evaluation facility.

What you’ll be doing

• Selecting hardware and recommending the right platform for each project
• Building and maintaining reference architectures and reference systems
• Standardising kit so it’s supportable and reproducible, not a one-off
• Provisioning and maintaining the engineering infrastructure
• Occasionally supporting exercises in the UK and abroad as the kit expert

What we’re looking for

• Hands-on experience selecting, building and running compute hardware
• Strong Linux skills (this isn’t an embedded development role)
• A working understanding of networking across LAN, WAN, Wi-Fi and satcom
• Awareness of GPUs and edge inference, and a real interest in what’s coming next
• Someone who’s happy with their hands on the kit and comfortable in the field

“Lead” here means owning the domain, not managing people. A solid senior engineer would be a great fit. No defence background is needed.