Real-Time Hardware Engineer - Mixed-Signal & PCB Design

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; Laurel (MD); On-site; USD 100,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retirement plans

Education assistance

Paid time off

Job summary

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) seeks an experienced Electrical Design Engineer to design, implement, and test electronic hardware for advanced optical systems. You will collaborate with electrical, optical, mechanical, FPGA, software, and systems engineers to create lab and fieldable hardware with precise timing and robust real-time operation.

The role covers analog, digital, and mixed-signal design, PCB development from schematic to assembly, and hands-on bench testing.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or closely related field.
• 5+ years of relevant experience designing, developing, integrating, or testing electronic hardware.
• Experience designing analog, digital, and/or mixed-signal electronics.
• Hands-on experience with schematic capture and PCB development.
• Experience with PCB design tools such as Altium Designer, KiCad, or equivalent.
• Strong laboratory skills and experience troubleshooting electronics with oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, function generators, logic analyzers, and similar test equipment.

Responsibilities

• Design analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits for real-time hardware-in-the-loop and optical test systems.
• Develop PCBs from concept through schematic capture, PCB layout, fabrication, assembly, bring-up, and integration.
• Perform PCB design using Altium Designer and KiCad.
• Design electronics for sensor interfaces, signal conditioning, power distribution, communications, timing, synchronization, and control.
• Select components and develop hardware interfaces between optical systems, sensors, computers, FPGA-based hardware, embedded processors, and lab equipment.
• Hands-on testing, debugging, and troubleshooting with oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, generators, logic analyzers, and lab instrumentation.
• Develop test approaches and execute board-level and system-level verification and characterization.
• Integrate custom electronics into complex real-time hardware-in-the-loop optical systems.
• Diagnose hardware and system-level issues involving signal integrity, timing, power, communications, and interfaces.
• Support system integration, experimental testing, and demonstrations in lab environments.
• Develop documentation including schematics, interface definitions, test procedures, test results, and design review materials.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and work with FPGA and software engineers to implement real-time interfaces.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Schematic capture

PCB design

Oscilloscope troubleshooting

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering or related field

Tools

Altium Designer

KiCad

Job description

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) seeks an experienced Electrical Design Engineer to design, implement, and test electronic hardware for advanced optical systems. You will collaborate with electrical, optical, mechanical, FPGA, software, and systems engineers to create lab and fieldable hardware with precise timing and robust real-time operation.

The role covers analog, digital, and mixed-signal design, PCB development from schematic to assembly, and hands-on bench testing.