Electrical & Embedded Engineer (Diagnostics Development Hub)

A*STAR - Agency for Science, Technology and Research; Singapore; On-site; SGD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

DxD Hub, Singapore's national diagnostics platform hosted by A*STAR, seeks an Electrical & Embedded Engineer to own hardware architecture and device firmware for diagnostic platforms. On-site role focusing on MCU selection, sensor interfacing, and testability, with cross-disciplinary collaboration across mechanical, optical, software, and assay teams.

The ideal candidate has deep embedded systems knowledge, systems judgement for external hardware design, and a drive to understand clinical use

Qualifications

• Strong embedded systems experience with a full product development cycle.
• Proficiency in MCU selection, peripheral interfaces, and sensor interfacing.
• Hands-on firmware development and debugging across drivers, RTOS or bare metal.
• Experience with ISO 13485 or medical device design controls is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own embedded hardware architecture for diagnostic prototypes and MVPs.
• Develop and maintain device firmware, drivers, and real-time control loops.
• Design on-device self-test, calibration, and diagnostics routines.
• Define hardware–firmware interfaces and enable hardware debugging and validation.

Skills

Embedded systems

Firmware development

ARM Cortex STM32

C/C++ programming

Python scripting

Electrical engineering

Debugging

Signal conditioning

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or related

Tools

Keil MDK

IAR Embedded Workbench

STM32 HAL/LL

PCB design tools

Job description

DxD Hub

DxD Hub is Singapore's national platform for diagnostics development, hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). With a mission to revolutionise diagnostics and improve healthcare outcomes, DxD Hub drives the transformation of innovations into clinically validated diagnostic devices ready for market adoption — leveraging an end-to-end, ISO 13485-compliant productisation engine across In Vitro Diagnostics, Point-Of-Care Connected Devices, Digital Diagnostics, and Digital Therapeutics. By delivering impactful products, empowering local enterprises, and anchoring global companies in the region, DxD Hub plays a central role in developing Singapore's diagnostic MedTech ecosystem.

Job Scope

We are seeking an Electrical & Embedded Engineer to join our multidisciplinary Integrated Medical Technology engineering team. Candidate will own the embedded hardware architecture and device firmware of new diagnostic platforms — microcontroller selection, peripheral and sensor interfacing, control loops for thermal, optical, fluidic, and motion subsystems, communications, and the on-device test and diagnostic capability that makes a prototype verifiable. Candidate will own the PCB design intent and the partner relationship end to end — writing the specification, defining the architecture and interface requirements, driving schematic and layout reviews, setting acceptance criteria, and taking responsibility for the quality, cost, and schedule. This is an on-site role.

Candidate will work across a broad range of IVD and POCT modalities including optical and fluorescence detection, electrochemical sensing, thermal control for PCR and isothermal amplification, and motion and fluidic actuation. Candidate will contribute to multiple concurrent projects at different stages of maturity, working as part of a close-knit, cross-disciplinary team alongside mechanical, optical, software, and assay colleagues.

The ideal candidate combines genuine depth in embedded systems and firmware with the systems judgement to specify and steer external hardware design. Equally important is a strong motivation to understand the clinical use case, the clinical workflow device must fit into, and the clinical adoption economics, such as cost per test, throughput, and reimbursement reality.

Roles and Responsibilities

Embedded and firmware

• Own the embedded hardware architecture of diagnostic prototypes and MVPs, such as MCU selection, memory and peripheral budgeting, power architecture and low-power strategy, and the analogue front-end interface to sensors.
• Develop, review, and maintain device firmware: peripheral drivers, sensor acquisition, real-time control loops (thermal, motion, optical gain, fluidic actuation), communications stacks, and error handling.
• Design and implement on-device self-test, calibration, and diagnostic routines that make instruments verifiable, serviceable, and traceable in the field.
• Define and document hardware firmware interfaces, register maps, and boot/update strategy, and lead debugging at the hardware firmware boundary using logic analysers, debuggers, and instrumented traces.
• Build validation scripts and interfaces that enable automated bench testing.
• Embedded Linux – system customisation and OS trimming; ability to write user-space or kernel-level programs that directly control MMIO, GPIO, interrupts, and DMA.
• ARM/STM32 expertise is mandatory – STM32 HAL/LL, clock tree, flash/RAM partitioning, bootloader, OTA. ESP32/ESP8266 experience is a plus.
• IDE proficiency – Keil MDK and IAR Embedded Workbench (including debug, trace, and performance analysis).
• Work with firmware and software colleagues to define hardware–firmware interfaces, register maps, and diagnostic/self-test capability; contribute to firmware development and debugging where required.
• Motor control – BLDC/stepper/servo driver development; closed-loop control (FOC, six-step, current/speed/position) with encoder/Hall feedback; PWM generation for power stage driving.
• Proven low-level development – must demonstrate verifiable experience.

Outsourced PCB design management

• Author PCB design specifications and requirement documents.
• Select, brief, and manage external PCB design houses and assembly vendors;
• Lead schematic and layout reviews with design partners, exercising the technical judgement to challenge decisions on grounding, signal and power integrity, thermal management, EMC layout practice, and manufacturability.
• Own component selection strategy alongside partners, including second sourcing, obsolescence risk, lead times, and cost-down opportunities.
• Take responsibility for board bring-up, characterisation, and fault diagnosis on returned designs, and drive corrective actions and design iterations with the partner.
• Manage design data integrity such as libraries, revision control, BOM accuracy, fabrication and assembly documentation so that design ownership and know-how remain with DxD Hub rather than with the vendor.
• Guide EMC/EMI, electrical safety, and environmental readiness of designs, and support pre-compliance and formal testing against applicable standards.

Preferred Skill/expertise

• PLC programming experience.
• Embedded UI development.
• Familiarity with CI/CD firmware delivery.

Clinical Application And Team

• Engage with clinical collaborators and end users to understand intended use, workflow constraints, and cost-of-adoption drivers, and reflect these in architecture decisions and component-level cost targets.
• Provide technical mentorship and design review for junior electrical engineers, and supervise interns on assigned tasks.
• Maintain design documentation, risk analyses, and test records in accordance with design control principles (ISO 13485), supporting the design history file.

Key Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, Biomedical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5 to 10 years of hands‑on embedded systems experience, with at least one full product development cycle completed from concept through verification.
• Strong embedded firmware capability.
• Deep working knowledge of peripheral and communication interfaces, UART, SPI, I2C, ADC/DAC, PWM, USB, BLE, and of sensor interfacing and signal conditioning at the analogue front end.
• Demonstrated ability to specify, review, and manage outsourced PCB design: writing hardware requirement specifications, running schematic and layout reviews, and holding external design partners to technical and commercial expectations. Fluency in reading schematics and layouts is essential; the ability to use a PCB tool for review, mark‑up, or simple in‑house boards is expected, but professional layout experience is not required.
• Proficiency with bench instrumentation, oscilloscopes, logic analysers, source measure units, power supplies, data acquisition and structured, hypothesis‑driven debugging methodology.
• Proficiency in Python for test automation, instrument control, and data analysis;
• Practical familiarity with EMC/EMI mitigation and electrical safety design; exposure to IEC 61010, IEC 60601, or IEC 61326 is a strong advantage.
• Experience developing products under a design control or quality management system (ISO 13485, IEC 62304, or equivalent) is highly desirable.
• Experience with medical device, diagnostic, or scientific instrumentation is strongly preferred; familiarity with optical detection, electrochemical sensing, thermal cycling, or microfluidic instrumentation is advantageous.
• Preferred: hands‑on experience with flexible electrodes and screen‑printed electrode fabrication — including ink and substrate selection, printing and curing processes, electrode characterisation, and the electrical interfacing of printed sensors to readout electronics.
• Familiarity with CMOS‑based sensing or semiconductor sensor readout architectures is a good‑to‑have.
• Comfort navigating uncertain situations without clear guidelines, and adaptability to changing project requirements and priorities.
• Proven ability to work on multiple projects concurrently and to thrive in a collaborative team setting, sharing knowledge and supporting colleagues across disciplines.
• Strong motivation to understand the clinical use case, intended user workflow, and adoption economics of the products being developed, and to let that understanding shape engineering decisions.
• Strong vendor and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate technical issues clearly to non‑technical stakeholders and to negotiate scope and schedule with external partners.