Hardware Systems Engineer

Hardware Systems Engineer

Are you passionate about digital hardware, embedded systems, and complex tactical systems?

Do you enjoy digging into circuit card designs, system architectures, and lab integration work?

If so, we're looking for someone like you to join our team at APL.

We are seeking an experienced Hardware Systems Engineer to help us design, review, and evolve mission-critical distributed C2 systems for DoD applications. You'll be joining a hardworking team of engineers who tackle challenging real-time problems in support of the warfighter. We strive to foster an environment of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning. As a member of our team, you will contribute to the development, integration, and sustainment of advanced tactical systems.

As a Hardware Systems Engineer in the Distributed C2 Real-time Engineering

• Your primary responsibility will be to review and contribute to the design and integration of complex digital hardware and embedded systems, with a strong focus on circuit card assemblies, computing architectures, and system-level performance.
• You will review circuit card schematics, drawings, and test procedures, providing thoughtful and technically sound feedback to improve design quality and test coverage.
• You will support ongoing equipment obsolescence analysis and future equipment architecture planning, particularly around computing hardware, operating systems, and cybersecurity.
• You will participate in systems engineering activities for a complex DoD tactical system, including requirements analysis, architecture definition, and verification planning.
• You will contribute to hardware/software integration and testing in a development laboratory, assisting with troubleshooting and root cause analysis across hardware and software boundaries.

Qualifications

You meet our minimum qualifications for the job if you...

• Possess a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical field.
• Have 3+ years of experience working in an engineering role (hardware, systems, embedded, or closely related).
• Are skilled in one or more of the following:
  • Digital hardware or circuit card assembly design, review, or test.
  • Embedded/real-time systems or computer architectures.
  • Systems engineering for complex systems.
• Are willing and able to travel up to 10% as needed.
• Are able to obtain an Interim Secret level security clearance by your start date and can ultimately obtain a Secret level clearance. If selected, you will be subject to a government security clearance investigation and must meet the requirements for access to classified information. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship.

You'll go above and beyond our minimum requirements if you...

• Have a Master's or Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• Have 5 or more years of experience working with:
  • Complex circuit card assembly design taken from concept through manufacturing and production of multiple units.
  • Printed circuit board design, manufacturing, and test processes.
  • Embedded real-time or near real-time systems and real-time operating systems (e.g., VxWorks, RT Linux, Integrity).
  • Computer architectures, including VPX-based or SOSA-aligned systems.
• Have familiarity or experience with:
  • Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) standard.
  • VITA 46, VITA 65 (VPX) standards.
  • Cybersecurity fundamentals and practice for embedded/tactical systems.
  • Anti-tamper systems engineering and technologies.
  • Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods and tools.
  • Navy and/or other DoD tactical systems.
  • Software engineering, scripting, or code design (e.g., C/C++, Python, shell scripting) to support integration, test automation, or tooling.
• Hold an active Top Secret or higher security clearance, or are able to qualify for one

Minimum Rate $100,000 Annually

Maximum Rate $245,000 Annually