Hardware Engineer

Job Title: Hardware Engineer
Location: North Reading, MA
Duration 12 month (Temp to Perm)
Payrate: $53 to $85 per hour

Job Description:
The Hardware Engineering team plays an integral role in the design and development of digital, analog, and optical automated test instrumentation and fixtures that meet the challenging needs of our critical Defense and Aerospace customers. This role is a highly technical engineering position that blends circuit design, PCB architecture, component selection, signal/power integrity analysis, and hardware bring-up and debug. It defines design strategies, applies rigorous engineering standards, and supports informed product release decisions.
The person in this role partners closely with mechanical, applications, systems, software, and quality engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle to translate requirements into robust designs, act as the technical owner of the hardware, uncover integration and reliability risks early, and improve product manufacturability, testability, and long-term sustainability. By combining schematic capture, PCB layout guidance, prototype bring-up, root-cause debugging, tolerance and worst-case analysis, and design-for-manufacturing/test practices, this role helps deliver high-confidence, mission-ready hardware and drive high-quality outcomes across the development process.

Responsibilities:

• Implement PCB design processes using tools, methodologies, and design frameworks, with emphasis on fundamentally sound high-level architecture, component selection, schematic capture, and artwork generation for digital, analog, and optical instrumentation.
• Design, build, and maintain comprehensive prototyping plans for new products, ensuring thorough initial bring-up, debug, and validation of both expected and edge-case circuit behavior.
• Be proficient in debugging analog, digital, and bus-based hardware using benchtop lab equipment, oscilloscopes, and other test instrumentation. Collect, analyze, and interpret design verification data; summarize test data and reporting findings; and contribute to documentation review, design traceability, and release status reporting.
• Communicate design status, verification results and technical risks clearly, providing factual, measurable input that supports engineering and management decision-making.
• Interact closely with product managers, software/mechanical/systems engineers, and cross-functional hardware colleagues to understand project objectives, review requirements and design concepts early, and provide design input focused on manufacturability, testability, and customer impact.
• Work closely with operations and new product integration teams to ensure that designs are not only highly functional but also highly manufacturable.
• Execute verification strategies that go beyond nominal operating conditions, including worst-case, tolerance, and environmental stress analysis to validate real-world customer use cases.
• Support design reviews that provide feedback to fellow hardware engineers to reduce design risk and prevent respin rate

• BSEE or MSEE
• 5-12 years PCBA design and simulation experience with a focus on schematic/circuit design
• Experience designing complex, high-speed, multi-layer PCB assemblies and reviewing artwork designs
• Strong circuit characterization, verification, and debug skills
• Experience working with multi-disciplinary engineering teams communicating requirements and highlighting potential risks to project management
• Experience working directly with customers presenting design work, highlighting design risks/challenges, and collaborating to find solutions.
• Minimal PCBA rework capabilities
• C/C++ experience preferred