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Hardware Contractor (Principal / Lead Hardware Engineer)
Location: Edinburgh (Hybrid)
Contract: Long-term, Inside IR35
We’re supporting a major defence and aerospace programme seeking experienced Principal/Lead Hardware Engineers to contribute to the development of next-generation Electronic Warfare and Defensive Aids Systems. These systems are deployed across fast jets, rotary platforms, UAVs, naval vessels and land-based assets — delivering mission-critical capability to frontline operators.
This contract is ideal for engineers who thrive on complex technical challenges involving high-speed digital design, FPGA-centric architectures, signal processing, hardware integration and qualification within a regulated environment.
You’ll work within multi-disciplinary engineering teams and contribute across the full lifecycle: requirements analysis, architecture definition, detailed design, integration, qualification and customer acceptance.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Designing and developing complex digital and mixed-signal hardware for defence/aerospace applications
- Defining hardware architectures for FPGA, SoC and processor-based systems
- Capturing schematics and supporting PCB layout for high-speed, high-performance digital designs
- Designing and verifying high-speed interfaces (DDR, PCIe, Ethernet, high-speed serial links)
- Integrating FPGA, processor, firmware and software components into complete embedded systems
- Performing analysis, simulation, validation and verification activities
- Supporting hardware bring-up, debugging and root-cause investigation at board and system level
- Collaborating closely with Systems, Firmware, Software, RF, Mechanical and Production Engineering teams
- Supporting environmental, EMC/EMI and qualification testing to defence/aerospace standards
- Producing structured technical documentation, design evidence and progress reporting
- Supporting customer demonstrations, integration activities, acceptance testing and trials
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What We’re Looking For
Essential Experience
- Proven background designing high-speed digital electronics in defence, aerospace or other mission-critical industries
- Strong experience with FPGA and SoC-based architectures (Xilinx/AMD, Intel/Altera or equivalent)
- Experience designing complex multilayer PCBs incorporating:
- High-speed serial interfaces
- High-performance processors
- DDR memory subsystems
- FPGA-based signal processing
- Hands-on experience with schematic capture and PCB tools such as:
- Altium Designer
- Xpedition/Expedition
- OrCAD
- Similar industry-standard tools
- Practical board-level debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, spectrum analysers and protocol analysers
- Experience integrating hardware, firmware and software in complex embedded systems
- Strong understanding of signal integrity, power integrity and timing in high-speed digital designs
- Experience developing products to demanding EMC, EMI and environmental requirements
- Ability to interpret, decompose and implement system requirements into robust hardware solutions
- Experience supporting verification, validation and qualification activities
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Desirable Experience
- Electronic Warfare, Radar, RF, Communications or Sensor systems
- Safety-critical or mission-critical product development
- FPGA-based signal processing architectures
- DO-254, DEF STAN, MIL-STD or equivalent standards
- Technical leadership and hardware design reviews
- DfM, DfT, DfR best practices
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