Principal Electrical Engineer

Argonne National Laboratory; Illinois; On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

6AM City, LLC is seeking an experienced Principal Electrical Engineer to join the Field Intelligence Element to support sensing, monitoring, and control systems in lab and field deployments. You will lead integration, testing, and sustainment of software and hardware for reliable operation in challenging environments.

You will design replacement hardware/software, mentor teams, and travel up to 15% for field trials domestically and internationally, contributing to project direction and

Qualifications

• Degree in electrical or computer engineering or closely related field.
• Hands-on experience with soldering, cable assemblies, test equipment, and system integration.
• Subject matter expert applying hardware/software tech to scientific control systems.
• Experience with Python, C/C++, embedded Linux, and network communications.

Responsibilities

• Maintain, troubleshoot, and improve software tools for lab and field experiments, including diagnosing down to the network layer.
• Design replacement software and hardware components focusing on reliability, maintainability, performance, and cybersecurity.
• Design new electronics configurations to merge with existing systems.
• Develop, test, and integrate software, firmware, hardware for sensing and control systems.
• Travel up to 15% for field trials and data gathering.
• Assist in long-term project planning and technology evaluation.

Skills

Python

C++

Embedded Linux

Network protocols

Soldering

PCB design

Documentation

GUI development

Team communication

Education

Electrical Engineering degree

Computer Engineering degree

Equivalent experience

Tools

Git

Linux

Altium/PCB tools

Schematic capture tools

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Principal Electrical Engineer to join the Field Intelligence Element (FIE) to support the development, integration, deployment, and sustainment of laboratory and field-deployable sensing, monitoring, and control systems. The FIE enables Argonne National Laboratory to provide products and services to DOE's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (DOE-IN), the Intelligence Community (IC), and non-IC federal agencies.

Primary Responsibilities

• Maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the current suite of software tools used for laboratory and field experimental operation within the group. This includes configuring, adapting, validating, and documenting these software tools to meet the varying needs of the experiments. This task will require the candidate to become fluent in our current software designs and be able to diagnose issues down to the network layer, including communication interfaces, embedded operating systems, and field-deployed network configurations.
• Design replacement software and hardware components to improve upon existing systems, with emphasis on reliability, maintainability, performance, cybersecurity, and field readiness.
• Design new electronics configurations which seamlessly merge with other existing systems.
• Design, develop, test, and integrate replacement software, firmware, hardware, and electronics components to improve existing sensing, monitoring, and control systems.
• Ability to travel up to 15% of the time is required. Travel includes field trials in domestic and international locations to deploy, test, develop, and gather data using specific sensing systems.
• Assist in long-term planning of project direction and scope as new opportunities arise, including system modernization and evaluation of emerging technologies.

Position Requirements

• Degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or a closely related technical field and relevant engineering experience, or equivalent.
• Hands-on experience in soldering, cable assembly, use of test equipment, troubleshooting systems, and complex system integration of commercial technology into specialized platforms
• Serve as a technical subject matter expert in applying hardware and software technologies relevant to the development and maintenance of scientific control systems
• Drive end-to-end software and firmware life-cycle phases and source/release control in a variety of language environments (Python, JavaScript, R, C++, C); have experience deploying for various operating systems in both desktop and embedded systems
• Be proficient in Python, and have development experience in the following technologies: embedded Linux, make utilities, C, C++, shell scripting, client/server applications, network communications, relational databases and user interface design, and web services
• Experience with the design and maintenance of custom embedded Linux hardware and operating systems
• Well-versed in industry standard design practices in terms of software and network security, including secure design, configuration control, and protection of field-deployed systems.
• Experience creating and developing practical technical solutions in resource-constrained or field-deployed environments.
• Be self-motivated, detail-oriented with good programming disciplines including code documentation and version control
• Interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate technical information to multidisciplinary teams and end users.
• Mechanical 3D CAD and design skills, able to assist in design and construction of field deployable test apparatus
• Proficient in the understanding and modification of existing schematics, printed circuit board layouts, interconnects, and cable design
• Expertise in developing for common serial communication protocols (TCP, UDP, I2C, UART, SPI, and others)
• Experience with developing and implementing digital signal processing algorithms and hardware in real-time systems
• Lead efforts to design and construct custom analog and digital printed circuit boards
• Modify existing Python-based control system software to meet future project needs
• Be the lead architect for the development of new control system software utilizing modern design patterns, frameworks, and methodologies
• Knowledge of the operation of radiation detection instrumentation
• Experience with designing and creating intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to control system applications and working with end users through an iterative process to refine the GUIs
• Support and enhance existing legacy control system tools and applications
• Interface extensively with mechanical systems and have a fundamental knowledge of mechanical terms and schematics
• Background in creating relational database applications and web-based tools
• Experience with advanced techniques in the development of control system and sensing applications
• To perform the