Lead Hardware Engineer Level 7

Kingston upon Thames; Luton; On-site; GBP 195,000 - 202,000; Full time

Job summary

Kingston upon Thames is seeking a Principal / Lead Hardware Engineer to join a major defence programme in the UK. You will lead the design of complex FPGA and processor-based hardware for air, land and maritime platforms, from requirements capture through validation.

You will produce schematics, support PCB layouts, integrate with embedded software, and perform timing, signal integrity and verification tasks while collaborating with Systems, Software, Firmware, RF and Manufacturing teams.

Qualifications

• Experience in defence/aerospace or highly regulated industries.
• Strong background in high-speed digital hardware design.
• Experience with FPGA/SoC and high-speed interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop high-speed digital hardware for FPGA/SoC platforms.
• Produce schematics and support PCB layouts for high-speed designs.
• Integrate hardware with embedded software and firmware.
• Support testing, verification and qualification activities.
• Provide technical documentation across lifecycle.

Skills

High-speed digital design

FPGA/SoC design

PCB layout

Signal integrity

Board bring-up & debugging

Schematic capture

Tools

Altium Designer

OrCAD

Xpedition

Job description

Principal / Lead Hardware Engineer

Location: Luton, Bedfordshire (LU1)

Duration: 12 Months

Onsite: 90% onsite

Rate: £95.44 per hour (Umbrella)

Inside IR35 Active SC

The Opportunity We're looking for an experienced Principal / Lead Hardware Engineer to join a major defence programme developing advanced electronic systems for air, land and maritime platforms. This is a fantastic opportunity to work on complex FPGA and processor-based hardware, contributing throughout the full product lifecycle from requirements capture and architecture through detailed design, integration, verification and qualification. You'll be working alongside multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver high-performance electronic hardware for safety and mission-critical applications.

Design and develop complex digital and mixed-signal electronic hardware. Develop hardware architectures for FPGA, SoC and processor-based solutions. Produce schematics and support PCB layout for high-speed digital designs. Design and validate interfaces such as DDR memory, PCIe, Ethernet and other high-speed protocols. Integrate hardware with embedded software, firmware and FPGA solutions. Carry out simulation, verification, validation and design analysis activities. Support board bring-up, hardware debugging and fault investigation. Work collaboratively with Systems, Software, Firmware, RF, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering teams. Support environmental, EMC/EMI and qualification testing. Produce technical documentation throughout the engineering lifecycle. Support system integration, demonstrations and customer acceptance activities where required.

Essential Skills & Experience Strong background in high-speed digital hardware design within defence, aerospace or other highly regulated industries. Experience designing FPGA and SoC-based hardware (Xilinx, AMD, Intel/Altera or equivalent). Proven experience designing complex multilayer PCBs, including: High-speed serial interfaces DDR memory High-performance processors FPGA-based digital signal processing Experience using schematic capture and PCB design tools such as Altium Designer, OrCAD, Xpedition or equivalent. Hands-on board-level debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analysers and protocol analysers. Experience integrating hardware with embedded firmware and software. Strong understanding of signal integrity, power integrity and timing analysis. Experience supporting verification, validation and qualification activities. Ability to translate system requirements into robust hardware designs.

Desirable Experience Electronic Warfare, Radar, RF, Communications or Sensor technologies. Development of safety-critical or mission-critical systems. FPGA signal processing. Knowledge of DO-254, DEF STAN, MIL-STD or equivalent industry standards. Hardware design reviews and technical leadership. Design for Manufacture (DfM), Design for Test (DfT) and Design for Reliability (DfR).

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