Senior Principal Hardware Engineer - PCIe & Ethernet

Actalent; United States; Hybrid; USD 73,000 - 121,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision

401(k) Retirement Plan

Life Insurance

Time Off / Leave

Job summary

Actalent is seeking a Principal Hardware Engineer in Newtown, PA for a contract-to-hire role. This senior technical leader will own the design, architecture, development, and full lifecycle of advanced high-speed hardware products, with emphasis on PCIe and Ethernet-based systems.

You will mentor junior engineers, influence cross-functional teams, and drive architecture decisions while delivering robust, high-performance hardware solutions.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of hardware engineering experience.
• Senior technical leadership in hardware architecture and direction.
• Extensive experience in high-speed communications hardware (PCIe, Ethernet).
• Hands-on EMI/EMC design experience.
• Ownership of full product development lifecycle.
• Leadership without formal people management responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end design and development of advanced hardware products, focusing on high-speed communications systems (PCIe and Ethernet).
• Own hardware lifecycle from concept to release, including architecture, design, testing, validation, and qualification.
• Define architecture decisions for mixed-signal systems (analog/digital/high-speed interfaces).
• Provide technical leadership and set hardware design direction across projects.
• Mentor junior/mid-level engineers and guide troubleshooting and development processes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure on-time product delivery.
• Design hardware for high-speed digital systems and address PCIe, Gigabit/10 Gigabit Ethernet challenges.
• Lead EMI/EMC design activities and perform EMC troubleshooting and mitigation.
• Oversee product qualification testing to ensure performance and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure robustness in signal/power integrity, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Drive continuous improvements to existing hardware platforms.

Skills

High-speed design

PCIe & Ethernet

EMI/EMC design

Lifecycle ownership

Mentorship

Job description

Actalent is seeking a Principal Hardware Engineer in Newtown, PA for a contract-to-hire role. This senior technical leader will own the design, architecture, development, and full lifecycle of advanced high-speed hardware products, with emphasis on PCIe and Ethernet-based systems.

You will mentor junior engineers, influence cross-functional teams, and drive architecture decisions while delivering robust, high-performance hardware solutions.