Sr. Hardware Design & Bring-up Engineer

Pinetics; Pune District; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinetics is seeking a highly experienced Hardware Engineer (8+ years) to independently review schematics and PCB layouts, lead board bring-up, and diagnose board-level issues down to the component level. The role demands hands-on debugging, design-review judgement, and the ability to prevent fabrication problems while ensuring boards work on the bench.

The ideal candidate will own board-level quality across analog, digital, power and MCU-based designs, guiding the engineering team and making

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on hardware design, review, and board bring-up.
• Proficiency in Altium Designer mandatory; KiCad/OrCAD acceptable with willingness to transition.

Responsibilities

• Review schematic designs across analog, digital, power and MCU-based subsystems, identifying issues at the design stage.
• Conduct detailed PCB layout reviews in Altium Designer: placement, power plane splits, high-speed routing, impedance control, thermal relief, DFM/DFA.

Skills

Schematic design

PCB layout review

Board bring-up

Debug/rework

Power electronics

MCU/SoCs

Memory interfaces

High-speed design

EMI/EMC

Thermal design

Debug tools

Simulation

Education

BE / B.Tech / M.E. / M.Tech in Electronics

Tools

Altium Designer

KiCad / OrCAD

Job description

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.