Principal Hardware Engineer

Posted yesterday

akkarMillbrae (CA)

Computer Hardware Engineers Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)

SENIORITY

Lead

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About the role

We are supporting a fast-growing autonomy and robotics company who are hiring a Principal Hardware Engineer to take technical ownership of a complex autonomous vehicle platform. This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who has designed and shipped real hardware at production scale and can operate across mechanical, electrical and electromechanical systems.

What you'll do: Set hardware architecture across mechanical, electrical and electromechanical systems. Lead development of drive-by-wire, actuation and safety-critical hardware. Own system integration across sensors, compute, power, harnesses and enclosures. Take hardware from architecture and prototyping through DFM, supplier qualification and volume production. Lead hardware bring-up, debugging, validation and field reliability improvements. Work closely with software, controls, systems, safety and manufacturing teams. Provide technical leadership across the hardware organisation without direct people management.

What we're looking for: 15+ years' hardware engineering experience building and shipping physical products. Strong depth across both mechanical and electrical engineering. Experience taking products through design, DFM, manufacturing and production. Hands-on experience with electromechanical systems such as steering, braking, motors or comparable systems. Comfortable with PCB/harness design, mechanical CAD, lab bring-up and hardware debugging. Experience with safety-critical hardware or standards such as ISO 26262, ISO 13849 or IEC 61508 is highly relevant. Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, commercial/off-highway vehicles, industrial automation, aerospace or similar environments. This is an opportunity to remain highly hands-on while having genuine ownership of architecture, technical direction and product reliability.

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