Electronic Engineer

Electronics / Robotics Engineer | UK Defence Technology | Buckinghamshire

An early-stage UK defence technology company is hiring an Electronics or Robotics Engineer to join a small, fast-moving team at their facility in Buckinghamshire.

The company builds a passive sensing system used for threat detection in contested environments. Already selected for a major NATO innovation programme, demonstrated at an international NATO exercise, and operating field trials every month they're targeting a first commercial contract within the next year.

The role

The company is bringing electronics capability in-house. Until now, PCB design has sat with an external contractor. This hire will own the electronics engineering function — from sensor integration and schematic design through to PCB layout, bring-up, and field validation.

The product integrates acoustic sensors, RF/antenna systems, GNSS modules, and edge AI compute (NVIDIA Jetson). Someone joining now will work across the full sensing stack — how the microphone interfaces with the PCB, how sensor data gets to the compute platform cleanly, how the RF and comms subsystems behave in the real world.

What you'll be doing:

• Owning PCB design from schematic capture through to production-ready layout
• Integrating sensors (acoustic, RF, GNSS, edge compute) into a fielded hardware platform
• Bring-up, verification, and debugging of new PCB designs
• Supporting field trials and operational exercises — out in the field, not just in the lab
• Working closely with the hardware engineering function on connector and enclosure constraints, signal routing, and power management
• Contributing to the transition from prototype to small-batch manufacture

About you

• Strong electronics engineering background with hands-on PCB design experience (Altium, KiCad, or similar)
• Comfortable working across the hardware stack — analogue front-ends, digital interfaces, power systems, RF, or embedded firmware
• Robotics or autonomous systems experience is a genuine plus — sensor integration, field-deployed hardware, and working at the electronics/firmware boundary all map well
• Self-directed and comfortable operating without an engineering management layer — this is a build-it-yourself role, not a process-following one
• Defence, space, automotive, robotics, or IoT backgrounds all considered; what matters is whether you've shipped real hardware that works in the real world

The opportunity

• First dedicated electronics hire — genuine ownership of the electronics engineering function from day one
• Real operational stakes — your work will be tested in the field within weeks
• Ground-floor role at a company with real momentum, credible path to next funding round,
• Small, founder-led team — serious engineering, no corporate overhead

UK-based, full-time. Must be eligible to work in the UK and able to work with sensitive defence-related projects. Some travel required for field exercises and trials.