Staff Hardware Design Engineer

POSITION OVERVIEW

NovaTech Automation is seeking a Staff Hardware Design Engineer to serve as our most senior individual-contributor authority on mixed-signal and high-speed digital hardware design, reporting directly to the Director of Hardware Engineering. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an engineer who has built products in a regulated, mature engineering organization and wants direct influence over architecture decisions without the overhead of people management. You will lead design reviews across the organization, partner directly with the Director to build a standardized platform architecture, and help shape design standards and technical mentorship across a hardware organization spanning four sites and multiple critical-infrastructure product lines.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Design Reviews & Platform Architecture

• Lead architecture, schematic, and PCB design reviews across the hardware organization, providing senior technical judgment on design tradeoffs before release
• Partner directly with the Director of Hardware Engineering to define standard designs, reference architectures, and reusable building blocks for a common platform architecture across product lines
• Establish and maintain design guidelines, templates, and reference schematics that raise the baseline quality and consistency of hardware designs across sites
• Identify opportunities to consolidate and standardize hardware building blocks across products to reduce design variation and accelerate future development

Hardware Design & Architecture

• Lead design of mixed-signal hardware, including analog input circuitry and digital I/O, for critical-infrastructure product lines
• Own high-speed digital design and signal integrity analysis across new product development
• Architect and integrate FPGA-based subsystems in collaboration with firmware engineering
• Design Ethernet and networking hardware interfaces meeting industrial and utility-grade requirements
• Design and specify power supplies and magnetics, including transformer and inductor selection or custom design, for embedded and industrial hardware
• Drive design decisions from concept through DVT/PVT exit, ensuring designs are audit-ready and fully documented

EMC & Regulatory Compliance

• Execute EMC design practices in hardware, including radiated/conducted emissions and immunity design-in, per established pre-compliance strategy
• Support certification bodies and internal quality teams in driving products through UL, CE, FCC, and related regulatory processes
• Apply cybersecurity and regulatory compliance requirements (e.g., IEC 62443, EU Cyber Resilience Act) to hardware design decisions

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for hardware design challenges across the organization
• Mentor mid-level and junior hardware engineers on design rigor, documentation standards, and root cause analysis
• Represent hardware engineering in cross-functional design reviews, CCB assessments, and program milestones

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work directly with firmware, quality, and program management to align hardware design decisions with product and compliance timelines
• Partner with the Director of Hardware Engineering on architecture strategy across Bethlehem, Lenexa, and Lima sites

BACKGROUND & ABILITIES

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's (Master’s preferred) degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent practical experience - Required
• 10+ years of formal hardware design experience in a regulated market (e.g., industrial automation, utility/substation, medical, or aerospace/defense) within a mature, process-driven engineering organization - Required
• Demonstrated experience designing mixed-signal circuitry: analog inputs and digital I/O - Required
• Demonstrated experience with high-speed digital design - Required
• Experience with FPGA-based hardware design and integration - Required
• Experience designing Ethernet/networking hardware interfaces - Required
• Experience with EMC design and compliance testing (e.g., IEC 61000 series, radiated/conducted emissions and immunity) - Required
• Experience with power supply design and magnetics (transformer/inductor selection or custom design) - Preferred
• Experience with IEC 61850 or substation automation protocols - Preferred
• Experience in electric utility, substation automation, or similarly regulated critical-infrastructure markets - Preferred

Skills

• Schematic capture and PCB layout review (Altium or equivalent) - Required
• Full product lifecycle experience: concept through DVT/PVT and certification - Required
• Signal integrity analysis for high-speed digital design - Required
• Familiarity with regulatory certification processes (UL, CE, FCC, and related bodies) - Required
• FPGA firmware/HDL familiarity (VHDL/Verilog) sufficient to collaborate closely with firmware engineers - Preferred
• Root cause analysis and design-for-reliability practices - Preferred

Core Competencies

• Operates independently at a high technical level without requiring detailed direction
• Serves as a technical authority and mentor for less experienced engineers
• Communicates complex technical tradeoffs clearly to cross-functional and leadership audiences
• Holds a high bar for design rigor and does not treat “good enough” as an acceptable outcome
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity in early-stage concept work while producing well-documented, audit-ready outputs