Electrical System Engineer

Guided Search Partners; Timonium (MD); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Guided Search Partners seeks an experienced Electrical Systems Engineer to design, develop, integrate, and test embedded software and firmware for aerospace and defense systems. The role requires a strong working knowledge of both embedded software and electronic hardware, including circuit design, PCB architecture, schematics, microcontrollers, power systems, and battery technologies.

You will collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers to deliver reliable, high-performance

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 3+ years of experience developing embedded software/firmware.
• Strong experience with C/C++ and embedded programming.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain embedded software/firmware for aerospace and defense applications.
• Develop software for microcontrollers, embedded processors, sensors, and electronic control systems.
• Work from electrical schematics, PCB layouts, and circuit designs to troubleshoot embedded systems.
• Collaborate on circuit design, PCB development, component selection, and HW/SW integration.
• Develop low-level drivers, board support packages, hardware interfaces, and real-time embedded apps.
• Interface with and troubleshoot hardware including microcontrollers, ADCs/DACs, sensors, interfaces, power electronics, and BMS.
• Support battery-powered embedded systems including monitoring, control, charging, and power-management.
• Perform software debugging with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, and debuggers.
• Contribute to hardware bring-up, integration, verification, validation, and troubleshooting.
• Develop unit, integration, and system-level software tests.
• Translate system requirements into software/firmware requirements and perform root-cause analysis.
• Produce technical documentation and adhere to aerospace/defense processes and standards.

Skills

Embedded software/firmware

C/C++

Microcontrollers

Embedded hardware

Schematic interpretation

PCB designs

Digital & analog fundamentals

Hardware/software debugging

SPI/I2C/UART/CAN

RTOS experience

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer/ Electrical Engineering or CS

Tools

Altium

Cadence

OrCAD

KiCad

Git

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Electrical Systems Engineer to design, develop, integrate, and test embedded software and firmware for advanced aerospace and defense systems. This position is ideal for an engineer with a strong understanding of both embedded software and electronic hardware, including circuit design, PCB architecture, schematics, microcontrollers, power systems, and battery technologies.

The Embedded Software Engineer will work closely with electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers to develop reliable, high-performance products operating in demanding aerospace and defense environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain embedded software and firmware for aerospace and defense applications.
• Develop software for microcontrollers, embedded processors, sensors, and electronic control systems.
• Work directly from electrical schematics, PCB layouts, and circuit designs to develop and troubleshoot embedded systems.
• Collaborate with electrical engineers on circuit design, PCB development, component selection, and hardware/software integration.
• Develop low-level drivers, board support packages, hardware interfaces, and real-time embedded applications.
• Interface with and troubleshoot hardware including microcontrollers, ADCs/DACs, sensors, communication interfaces, power electronics, and battery management systems.
• Support development and integration of battery-powered embedded systems, including monitoring, control, charging, and power-management functionality.
• Perform software debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, debuggers, and other laboratory equipment.
• Participate in hardware bring-up, integration, verification, validation, and troubleshooting.
• Develop and execute unit, integration, and system-level software tests.
• Analyze system requirements and translate them into software and firmware requirements.
• Support root-cause analysis of hardware/software issues and implement corrective actions.
• Develop technical documentation including software requirements, design documentation, test procedures, and verification reports.
• Work within established engineering processes and quality standards applicable to aerospace and defense programs.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams throughout the product development lifecycle.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related engineering discipline.
• 3+ years of experience developing embedded software/firmware.
• Strong experience with C/C++ and embedded programming.
• Hands-on experience with microcontrollers and embedded hardware.
• Ability to read and interpret electrical schematics and PCB designs.
• Understanding of digital and analog circuit fundamentals.
• Experience debugging embedded systems at the hardware/software interface.
• Experience with embedded communications protocols such as SPI, I²C, UART, CAN, RS-232/485, or similar.
• Experience using hardware debugging and test equipment.
• Understanding of real-time embedded systems and software development methodologies.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary engineering environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aerospace, defense, military, or other highly regulated industry experience.
• Experience with battery systems, battery management systems (BMS), power electronics, or energy-storage systems.
• Experience with PCB design and tools such as Altium, Cadence, OrCAD, KiCad, or similar.
• Experience with ARM, STM32, TI, Microchip, NXP, or similar microcontroller platforms.
• Experience with RTOS environments such as FreeRTOS, VxWorks, or Zephyr.
• Familiarity with embedded Linux.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing.
• Familiarity with software version control such as Git.
• Experience with requirements and configuration management tools.
• Knowledge of aerospace/defense development standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, MIL-STD, or similar.
• Experience developing systems for harsh, mission-critical, or safety-critical environments.
• Ability to obtain or maintain a U.S. security clearance, if required by the program