Hardware Engineer in Aemstelredamme, Nederland

About the role

Onodrim is building Europe's largest defence and industrial platform. We acquire specialist manufacturers in critical defence and dual-use supply chains, then invest behind their growth with capital, technology and operating know-how.

OnodrimX is our internal R&D unit. It builds the products and technologies the platform needs and that no one in our supply chain makes yet – sensor, compute and communications systems that combine hardware, firmware and software – and takes them from concept through prototype to demonstration with real users. Hardware Engineers in OnodrimX design and build the physical systems those products run on.

This is a generalist role in a small team. On one programme you'll be designing the PCB for a low-power sensor node, writing the firmware that reads its sensors and talks to the radio, and designing the enclosure that keeps it alive in the ground for months; on another, packaging a compute-and-radio unit for a vehicle, with the power, thermal and connector design that implies; on a third, building the test rig that proves either of them works. You'll sit next to the software engineers, debug across the boundary, and be at the demonstrations when the hardware has to work.

What you'll do

• Design the electronics. Own schematic capture, component selection, PCB layout and bring-up for sensor, compute and communications hardware – low-power mixed-signal boards, power supplies, interfaces to radios, sensors and peripherals.
• Write the firmware. Bring up boards, write drivers and the embedded code that reads sensors, manages power and talks to the rest of the system; work with the software engineers on where the firmware ends and their code begins.
• Design the mechanics. Own enclosures, mounts, sealing, thermal and connector design so the hardware survives the ground, the vehicle and the weather; design for the environment it will actually see.
• Build and test. Get prototypes made – in-house, with quick-turn suppliers or with a portfolio company – assemble and test them, and build the rigs and fixtures that prove performance, power and environmental robustness.
• Own a work package. Take a sub-system from the programme plan, scope it with the Head of Research & Development, estimate it, build it, test it and integrate it on the milestone date.
• Support trials and demonstrations. Travel to test sites and customer demonstrations, keep the hardware running under real conditions, feed what breaks back into the next revision, be able to demo the product.
• Prepare for production. Keep bills of materials sourceable, drawings and test procedures complete and design files in order, so that a manufacturer can take the product over and build it at scale; work with their engineers on the transfer.
• Manage suppliers. Run the PCB fabs, assemblers, machine shops, 3D-printing and component suppliers the programmes depend on; know lead times before they bite.
• Raise the bar. Review others' designs, share what you learn, and help onboard the engineers who join after you.

Requirements

What you'll bring

• A degree in electrical, electronic, mechatronic or mechanical engineering, or a closely related discipline – or an equivalent track record of hardware you have designed, built and shipped.
• 3+ years as a hardware engineer, with real experience in at least two of: PCB design and bring-up, embedded firmware, mechanical and enclosure design, power and battery systems, RF or sensor front-ends.
• Fluent in a modern ECAD tool (Altium, KiCad or similar) and a mechanical CAD tool (SolidWorks, Fusion, Onshape or similar), and comfortable with C/C++ on microcontrollers.
• Hands-on with the bench: scope, logic analyser, soldering iron, 3D printer; you have debugged a board that didn't work and a part that didn't fit.
• Experience designing for a real environment – ingress protection, temperature, vibration, battery life – not only for the lab.
• A builder's mindset: you prefer a working prototype this week to a complete design next month, and you finish what you start.
• Clear, direct communication in English, written and spoken, with engineers and non-engineers.
• Willingness to travel within Europe for trials and demonstrations, with occasional travel to the US.
• Right to work in the UK, Switzerland or the EU, and eligibility for a national security clearance in at least one of our operating countries.

Nice to have

• We operate our business in English; knowledge of a European language other than English is beneficial.
• Low-power design experience – energy budgeting, sleep modes, energy harvesting – for long-duration unattended devices.
• Sensor front-end experience: geophones, microphones, accelerometers, magnetometers or similar, and the analogue chain behind them.
• RF layout and antenna integration experience, or work with cellular, LoRa, Wi-Fi or other radio modules.
• Experience taking a design through EMC, environmental or safety testing and into a manufacturer's hands – DFM, DFA, test procedures.
• Exposure to defence, aerospace, automotive or another domain with qualification requirements and demanding environments.
• Time at a hardware start-up, a robotics or drone company, or a research lab where you built a working device with a small team.
• An existing national security clearance.
• Clearance in at least one of our operating countries.