Staff Hardware Engineer, Secure Compute Systems - Remote

Fresh Consulting; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Fresh Consulting is seeking a Staff Hardware Engineer (Principal Level) in Houston, TX, with remote options requiring onsite every other week. The role focuses on hardware for secure compute systems and post-quantum cryptography in collaboration with software, security, and systems teams.

You will own power/thermal design, work on FPGA integration, and ensure manufacturability for space-qualified hardware. Strong delivery under tight schedules is essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 15 years of professional hardware experience, taking compute or electronics hardware from concept to production.
• Experience with power and thermal design and analysis for electronics hardware.
• Experience with mechanical/physical envelope, packaging, and enclosure design.
• Experience designing bus interfaces and bus architectures (e.g., PCIe, Ethernet, SpaceWire, or similar).
• Experience sourcing components and working with third-party vendors and contract manufacturers.
• Prefer space-qualified, rad-hard, or ruggedized hardware experience; cryptographic hardware exposure is a plus.
• Track record of delivering hardware under aggressive timelines.

Responsibilities

• Design and collaborate on hardware-based products for PQC and Orbital Compute systems.
• Own power, thermal, and physical envelope design for compute hardware, including enclosure design.
• Design bus interfaces and bus architectures for secure compute systems.
• Deliver the first hardware variant on a short time-to-market while designing in parallel for hardware at scale.
• Design for manufacturability, reliability, and environmental constraints including radiation, vibration, and thermal-vacuum for orbital variants.
• Partner with software, security, and systems engineers to integrate cryptographic and compute hardware into end products.
• Support hardware design reviews (PDR, CDR) and provide feedback.
• Contribute to FPGA-based design and integration where applicable.
• Deliver iteratively in a fast-paced environment with ambiguity.
• Perform additional job duties as assigned.

Skills

Power/thermal design

Hardware engineering

Vendor management

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical or Computer Engineering

15 years hardware experience

Tools

PCIe

SpaceWire

Job description

Fresh Consulting is seeking a Staff Hardware Engineer (Principal Level) in Houston, TX, with remote options requiring onsite every other week. The role focuses on hardware for secure compute systems and post-quantum cryptography in collaboration with software, security, and systems teams.

You will own power/thermal design, work on FPGA integration, and ensure manufacturability for space-qualified hardware. Strong delivery under tight schedules is essential.