Lead Electrical Engineer — Smart Cow Monitoring Hardware

Spade; United States; Presencial; USD 80.000 - 110.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Spade is looking for a Lead Electrical Engineer for their Nexa Labs initiative, focusing on innovative cow-monitoring hardware. This role involves designing and prototyping robust embedded devices while ensuring they meet environmental conditions on real farms.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in PCB design and embedded systems, with at least 3 years of experience. Responsibilities include collaborating with various teams and overseeing the entire product design process from concept to production.

Formación

• 3+ years of experience building and shipping embedded products.
• Strong PCB design skills from schematic capture to layout.
• Experience with RF design and embedded ecosystems.

Responsabilidades

• Own electronics architecture and design from concept to manufacturing.
• Design and validate hardware against environmental requirements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for product development.

Conocimientos

PCB design fluency in Altium or equivalent

3+ years of professional EE experience

Firmware fluency in C

Hands-on lab skills

Herramientas

Altium

KiCad

Descripción del empleo

Spade is hiring a Lead Electrical Engineer for Nexa Labs, our cow-monitoring hardware initiative — small, low-power embedded devices (microchip + ear tag) deployed on real farms.

This is a hands‑on role: you'll architect, design, prototype, and ship hardware that survives weather, mud, and cows. You'll own the design end‑to‑end through manufacturing handoff.

What you’ll do

• Own electronics architecture and design from concept to manufacturing handoff
• Schematic capture, component selection, PCB layout, and DFM in Altium (or equivalent) — including mixed‑signal designs with sub‑GHz radio, low‑frequency inductive RF, sensors, and power management
• Rapid prototyping: design, solder, rework, assemble, and bring up boards yourself
• Write the firmware you need for bring‑up and debugging
• Design power budgets and chase down current draw to hit real‑world operation requirements
• Validate hardware against environmental requirements (temperature, humidity, impact, UV, dust)
• Design and build production test fixtures (pogo pin rigs, automated flash/test, pass/fail criteria)
• Release fab packages, respond to DFM questions, and partner with manufacturing
• Occasional travel to farms for field testing and to learn from users firsthand
• Collaborate with MechE, software, manufacturing, and farm‑facing teams

You should have

• 3+ years of professional EE experience building and shipping embedded products
• Strong PCB design fluency in Altium, KiCad, or equivalent — schematic through layout
• Deep familiarity with embedded ecosystems (STM32, Nordic, etc.) and ability to pick up new MCU families quickly
• RF design experience — antenna placement, impedance matching, ground plane in tight form factors
• Hands‑on lab skills: soldering, rework, scope, logic analyzer, multimeter, current probe
• Firmware fluency in C — bring‑up, peripheral drivers, register‑level debug
• Experience taking a design through DFM and into production
• Comfort with ambiguity, fast iteration, and startup pace

Nice to have

• Experience designing for harsh/outdoor environments (ag, automotive, industrial, defense)
• Basic mechanical design — comfortable in CAD, can collaborate on enclosure fit
• Production test engineering experience
• Personal home lab/hobby projects
• Experience with primary battery chemistries (lithium thionyl, lithium manganese)

Details

• Target start: early‑to‑mid July 2026

To apply, send a note + resume to [e-mail].