Senior Hardware Engineer

JOB SUMMARY

Nuvation, an Engineering Design Services company, is looking for a Senior Electronics Hardware Engineer to participate in a variety of projects.

The ideal candidate is a strong generalist possessing a broad scope of knowledge and experience in Electronics and Embedded Systems design. In this role you will be a key member and leader within Nuvation’s engineering team. On the technical side, you will be expected to architect and develop electronic systems involving a complex fusion of analog, digital, high-speed, and programmable logic technologies, integrating them with embedded firmware or HDL as necessary. You will also lead a small team of engineers to successfully meet the technical and scheduling goals set out for each project. The role requires advanced technical experience in Electronics Design, as well as creativity and the ability to learn.

If you are looking for constant challenges on a wide variety of design projects, this is the job for you.

COVID-19 considerations:

Nuvation is committed to putting our employee health and safety first by following provincial guidelines safe workplaces. Most of our employees work from home with only a handful onsite for essential work.

The nature of this role requires you to reside local to the Waterloo Region. You will spend most workdays remote with the occasional office visits to interact with hardware systems.

Please note that anyone entering Nuvation premises – staff, tenant, client, or visitor – must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

WHAT DOES NUVATION DO?

Founded in 1997, Nuvation is an electronic design company that provides hardware design, software development, and FPGA design services for electronic product development.

Our Clients hail from many industries including Video, Wireless, Medical, Defense Robotics, and High-Performance Computing. Over the last two decades we have served over 400 customers and completed over 1000 engineering design projects.

WHO IS NUVATION?

At Nuvation, we are engineers to the core – it is our culture and we engage in it as a team sport. We enjoy gnarly challenges and see creative opportunities, where others see problems. We specialize in the ridiculous and emphatically reject the limitations of conventional wisdom.

We’ve built systems to capture data while exploring space, an air hockey robot that blocks over 98% of shots , a trainer for your soccer skills, cameras to help stores understand their patrons, and many other systems for our clients.

We are fanatical pragmatists who revere logic, process, repeatability, and methodology. You will be working with highly competent team members who are wired to respond to challenges with innovation. We’re very comfortable skating on the bleeding-edge of technology.

In our spare-time we stop engineering for fun and money, and start engineering for fun alone. We've built combat robots, an electric car, an autonomous driving electric beer keg, and other arguably useful inventions that require an incredible amount of engineering expertise to make them work!

Our business fuels our culture, and our culture fuels our business. We love the work that we do and enjoy working with each other every day.

If this sounds like an environment where you can thrive, come join us!

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Engineering Execution – Actively contributing to the delivery of our Engineering Services. All levels of technical activity will be involved, ranging from:
  • Electronic system architecture definition and design
  • Circuit design and analysis (board-level analog and digital)
  • Schematic Entry and PCB Layout
  • Test, bring-up and debug of electronic subsystems
  • Leading and participating in Design Reviews
  • Technical Proposal writing and Project Estimation
  • Interacting with clients, vendors, partners and our engineering team

Engineering execution will be your primary activity – creating new products for Nuvation and our customers, bringing into the world products that never existed before.

• Technical Development – Developing your technical skills, knowledge and leadership through a work environment that provides mentoring and open collaboration.
• Customer Interaction – Ensuring project success by working directly with team members to provide timely and accurate project updates to clients. Providing pre-sales and post-sales technical resources to support our Sales Account Managers.
• Engineering Architecture and Technical Leadership – Using your strong architecture skills to define new designs and to review Design Descriptions. You are qualified to take ownership of a design area as the Technical Lead. You take ownership at the technical level for teams you lead and the designs you deliver, focusing on completion and customer service.
• Mentoring – Mentoring is a key value in Nuvation's Culture. You will guide individuals to be savvy engineers.
• Generating Sales - Working with our sales and marketing team in a number of ways. These include proposal writing, project estimation, and content marketing. Your presence in our sales and marketing efforts brings credibility, technical excellence, and the voice of the expert.
• Recruiting - Interviewing candidates for specific technical knowledge and evaluate their fit with Nuvation's Culture and Principles.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

• Extensive experience with Electronics and Embedded Systems hardware design, including (but not limited to) experience in the following technology areas:
  • Analog and digital PCB design
  • High-speed digital design
  • ADC/DAC system design
  • Designs involving FPGAs and/or embedded processors
  • Power supply design
  • Communication interfaces including USB, I2C, SPI, CAN, RS-232, RS-485, Ethernet, etc.
  • Sensors and actuators
  • Signal conditioning, passive and active filter design
  • Circuit simulation (PSPICE, LTspice, etc.)
  • Design for Manufacturability
  • Design for EMC Compliance
• Basic understanding of RF design principles
• Solid knowledge of EMC/EMI fundamentals
• Experience integrating hardware systems with FPGAs and/or embedded processors
• Advanced PCB- and system-level troubleshooting experience
• Knowledge about electronics manufacturing and DFM best practices
• Expert user knowledge of high-speed oscilloscopes, signal generators, logic analyzers, spectrum and/or network analyzers
• Proficiency with one or more of the following tools for schematic entry and PCB layout: Altium Designer, OrCAD, or alternate tool
• Excellent technical documentation skills (including experience creating Design Specifications, Block Diagrams, System Architecture Reports, and Test Plans)
• Experience with high layer count board designs
• Strong knowledge of EMC management principles and best practice design for EMI control, in-depth knowledge of PCB design and PCB technology, and knowledge about electronics manufacturing and DFM best practices
• University degree or College Diploma in Electrical/Electronics, Mechatronics or Computer Science, or equivalent experience
• Leadership capability and desire to mentor others
• Detail-oriented and meticulous nature
• Rapid learning ability
• Passion and creativity

NICE-TO-HAVES

• Hands-on experience in FPGA and/or embedded firmware development
• Experience working with high-power battery systems
• Mechanical / electro-mechanical design experience or aptitude
• Robotics interest or experience
• Experience working with video and imaging applications
• RF design including Microwave, Wireless, or Antenna design experience
• Direct experience with Signal Integrity or RF simulation tools
• Design experience in a complementary discipline

GENERAL SKILLS & CHARACTERISTICS TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT NUVATION

All Nuvation employees require a common set of general skills & characteristics – your capability in these areas will enable you to be successful at Nuvation. We take these skills and characteristics seriously – being a Nuvation employee requires more than just experience and role-specific skills.

• You want to learn, and you do so quickly
• You are effective at multi-tasking and switching gears by prioritizing, focusing, and adapting to the multiple concurrent tasks/projects at hand
• You are proficient at estimation and critical thinking
• You are organized, independent, and self-managing
• You have strong written and verbal communication
• You desire to work and collaborate with people and teams – you make your colleagues better and you grow from their contributions
• You focus on results, and with quality
• You are passionate and creative – with a willingness to go beyond the normal
• You are hands-on and practical

BENEFITS

Nuvation offers competitive salaries with health, dental, vision, and disability benefits. All positions have opportunities for variety, innovation, and success. We have a fast-paced, yet relaxed work environment, and a unique corporate culture that will support and encourage you to perform at your personal best for your colleagues and our customers. We promise you respect, teamwork, and appreciation for a job well done.