Senior Electronics Engineer - R&D

Company Profile Location: Waterbeach, UK
Department: Engineering
Reports to: Engineering Manager
Type: Full-time, Permanent

Company Profile
Thermoteknix Systems Ltd, founded in 1982 and based in Cambridge, is a world leader in thermal imaging, night vision, and augmented reality systems. Our award-winning technologies are trusted by defence, security, and industrial customers in over 70 countries. With in-house R&D, cutting-edge innovation, and a global reputation for quality, we design and manufacture solutions that perform in the toughest environments. About You Role Overview
The Senior Electronics Engineer will take technical ownership of electronic hardware design across new and existing Thermoteknix products. The role will involve leading the design, development, verification, and support of complex electronic systems, working closely with firmware, software, mechanical, production, and project teams.

This is a hands-on senior engineering role suited to someone with strong electronic design experience, sound technical judgement, and the ability to take products from concept through prototype, verification, and transfer into manufacture. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute both as an individual designer and as a technical lead within the R&D team.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of electronic hardware for new and existing products.
• Take ownership of electronic design activities from concept through to production release.
• Design analogue, digital, power, video, embedded, and mixed-signal electronics for compact and ruggedised products.
• Produce schematics, design calculations, PCB layout guidance, bills of materials, and supporting technical documentation.
• Review and approve electronic designs, ensuring they meet technical, commercial, manufacturability, and reliability requirements.
• Work closely with firmware and software engineers to integrate electronics with FPGA, microcontroller, sensor, display, video, and communication interfaces.
• Lead prototype bring-up, board-level debugging, system integration, verification testing, and fault finding.
• Support EMC, environmental, reliability, and compliance testing where required.
• Contribute to technical architecture decisions for new products and product improvements.
• Support design reviews, risk assessments, requirements capture, and development planning.
• Mentor and support junior engineers, providing technical guidance and design review input.
• Work with production and test teams to support transfer into manufacture, including test procedures, production documentation, and troubleshooting.
• Investigate and resolve complex technical issues across development and production hardware.
• Support component selection, obsolescence management, alternative part qualification, and supplier engagement.
• Maintain high standards of design control, documentation, configuration management, and engineering best practice.

Required Skills & Experience

• Degree or equivalent experience in Electronic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Significant experience designing electronic hardware for commercial, industrial, defence, aerospace, scientific, or other high-performance products.
• Strong knowledge of analogue, digital, power, and mixed-signal circuit design.
• Experience taking electronic designs from concept through to prototype, verification, and production release.
• Experience with schematic capture and PCB design processes.
• Practical experience with electronic test equipment, including oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analysers, and power supplies.
• Ability to debug complex electronic systems at board and system level.
• Experience of embedded systems, microcontrollers, FPGA interfaces, or sensor integration.
• Experience designing for reliability, manufacturability, and testability.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary engineering team.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Experience with imaging systems, thermal cameras, night vision, displays, or electro-optical products.
• Knowledge of video interfaces, MIPI, LVDS, USB, Ethernet, SPI, I²C, UART, CAN, or similar communication protocols.
• Experience with low-power electronic design.
• Experience with battery-powered or portable products.
• Knowledge of EMC design principles and environmental testing.
• Experience with Altium Designer or similar PCB design tools.
• Familiarity with defence, aerospace, or ruggedised product development.
• Experience supporting products through prototype build, qualification, and production release.
• Understanding of component lifecycle management and obsolescence control.

Personal Attributes

• Practical, hands-on, and comfortable working with real hardware.
• Strong problem-solving mindset with good attention to detail.
• Able to work independently while contributing effectively to a wider team.
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving engineering environment with changing priorities.
• Curious, technically driven, and keen to develop new skills.
• Takes ownership of tasks and follows through to completion.
• Able to balance innovation with manufacturability, reliability, and commercial requirements.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK at the time of application. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for our roles. Why us?

• Opportunity to work on advanced thermal imaging, night vision, and augmented reality systems.
• Involvement in the full product development lifecycle from concept to production.
• A varied and technically challenging role within a specialist UK engineering company.
• Training and career development opportunities.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.