Hardware Technical Lead

3dB Labs; Olde West Chester (OH); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

3dB Labs is seeking a Hardware Technical Lead to serve as the senior portfolio-level technical authority for hardware architecture, standards, lifecycle, and manufacturability across the product line. You will partner with software and production to ensure cohesive, high-quality hardware platforms and timely technology refreshes.

The role emphasizes leading design reviews, trade studies, and cross-product issue escalation while ensuring portfolio-wide coherence and adherence to best practices in

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field.
• Significant hardware or systems engineering experience with architecture or technical leadership responsibility for complex, integrated products.
• Experience across electrical, mechanical, compute, RF, power, thermal, networking, or other hardware domains.
• Proven ability to lead trade studies and design reviews, assess technical estimates and risks, guide component decisions, and mentor engineers.
• Experience with ruggedized systems, defense or mission systems, and low-volume/high-complexity manufacturing is desirable.
• US citizenship is required; Top Secret clearance is a major plus.

Responsibilities

• Establish common hardware architecture principles and standards for compute, electrical, mechanical design, power, thermal, RF, networking, and other shared interfaces.
• Identify opportunities to standardize components, platforms, and interfaces to improve reliability, cost, supply resilience, production efficiency.
• Review major hardware and platform decisions affecting multiple products or baselines and document portfolio-wide standards.
• Partner with Product Technical Leads early in requirements to ensure hardware approaches are portfolio-aware.
• Lead or participate in design reviews and trade studies for significant new hardware and technology refreshes.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for cross-product hardware issues and coordinate with software on drivers and integration.
• Maintain visibility into lifecycle risks, vendor end-of-life events, lead times, and supply constraints across the portfolio.
• Plan technology refreshes with Product Managers and Production to prevent disruptions.
• Support platform and component selection, make/buy decisions, and transitions between hardware baselines.
• Ensure hardware transitions to Production with stable designs and proper build/test data.
• Use failures and root-cause analysis to improve hardware standards and prevent recurring issues.

Job description

The Hardware Technical Lead is the senior portfolio-level technical authority for hardware architecture, common interfaces and standards, lifecycle, and manufacturability across 3dB Labs products. The role establishes a coherent hardware foundation while allowing product-specific approaches when mission or technical requirements justify them.

Product Managers own what and why; Product Technical Leads own the integrated solution for assigned products. This role owns portfolio hardware coherence and decisions affecting shared platforms, components, interfaces, or production baselines. It partners with the Software Technical Lead, Engineering, Production, and QA; Engineering leadership retains staffing and personnel management.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Hardware Architecture & Standards

• Establish common hardware architecture principles and standards for compute, electrical and mechanical design, power, thermal, RF, networking, connectors, and other shared interfaces as applicable.
• Identify opportunities to standardize components, platforms, and interfaces where reuse improves reliability, cost, supply resilience, production efficiency, or sustainment.
• Review major hardware and platform decisions that could affect multiple products or baselines and ensure portfolio-level standards and decisions are documented.

Product Integration & Design Governance

• Partner with Product Technical Leads early in requirements and design to ensure hardware approaches and interfaces are technically sound and portfolio-aware.
• Lead or participate in design reviews and trade studies for significant new hardware, redesigns, and technology refreshes, balancing performance, SWaP, reliability, cost, lead time, manufacturability, and integration risk.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for cross-product hardware issues and coordinate with the Software Technical Lead on drivers, compute constraints, interfaces, and hardware/software integration.

Lifecycle, Obsolescence & Supply Risk

• Maintain visibility into shared component and platform lifecycle risks, vendor end-of-life events, lead times, and supply constraints across the portfolio.
• Partner with Product Managers, Product Technical Leads, and Production to plan technology refreshes and transitions before lifecycle risks become delivery or customer disruptions.
• Support platform and component selection, make/buy and vendor evaluations, backward-compatibility decisions, and transitions between hardware baselines.

Manufacturability, Quality & Production Transition

• Partner with Production and Quality to ensure hardware can be built, tested, inspected, serviced, and sustained repeatably, with appropriate design-for-manufacture and design-for-test practices.
• Ensure hardware transitions to Production with stable designs and the required build, assembly, test, configuration, and technical data.
• Use production and field failures, root-cause analysis, and lessons learned to improve common hardware standards and prevent recurring issues across products.

Desired Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field; advanced degree is a plus.
• Significant hardware or systems engineering experience with architecture or technical leadership responsibility for complex, integrated products.
• Demonstrated experience across electrical, mechanical, compute, RF, power, thermal, networking, or other relevant hardware domains, including design-for-manufacture and design-for-test considerations.
• Proven ability to lead trade studies and design reviews, assess technical estimates and risks, guide component/platform/vendor decisions, and mentor senior engineers and technical leads.
• Experience with ruggedized systems, RF/electronics, defense or mission systems, and low-volume/high-complexity manufacturing is highly desirable.
• Current or past US security clearance is a major plus, ability to obtain a Top Secret clearance required.

US citizenship is required for all of our positions.