Lead Hardware Engineer

Lead Hardware Engineer

Based in Luton

12-month contract

Paying up to £70p/h (Inside IR35)

Please note - Due to the nature of the work, you'll be required to already hold or be eligible to obtain a high level of UK Security Clearance

Required to solve complex technical challenges involving high-speed digital design, FPGA-based architectures, signal processing, hardware integration and system qualification within a highly regulated defence environment.

• Design and develop complex digital and mixed-signal hardware solutions for defence and aerospace applications.
• Define hardware architectures for FPGA, SoC and processor-based systems.
• Capture schematics and support PCB layout activities for high-speed, high-performance digital designs.
• Design and verify high-speed interfaces including DDR memory, PCIe, Ethernet and similar protocols.
• Integrate FPGA, processor, software and firmware components into complete system solutions.
• Perform design analysis, simulation, validation and verification activities.
• Support hardware bring-up, debugging and root-cause investigation at board and system level.
• Work closely with Systems, Firmware, Software, RF, Mechanical and Production Engineering teams.
• Support environmental, EMC/EMI and qualification testing in accordance with defence and aerospace standards.
• Produce technical documentation, design evidence and progress reporting in accordance with structured engineering life cycles.
• Support customer demonstrations, integration activities, acceptance testing and trials.

• Proven experience designing high-speed digital electronics within aerospace, defence or other safety/mission-critical industries.
• Strong background in FPGA and SoC-based hardware architectures (Xilinx, AMD, Intel/Altera or equivalent).
• Practical board-level debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, spectrum analysers and protocol analysers.
• Experience integrating hardware, firmware and software on complex embedded systems.
• Experience developing products to demanding EMC, EMI and environmental requirements.
• Experience designing complex multilayer PCBs incorporating:
  High-speed serial interfaces;
  High-performance processors; DDR memory subsystems & FPGA-based signal processing solutions.
• Knowledge of DO-254, DEF STAN, MIL-STD or equivalent aerospace and defence standards.
• Experience with FPGA signal processing architecture