Electrical Engineer
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada or Leatherhead, Surrey, United Kingdom
Job Description - Full time, permanent
Experience: 5+ years experience
Education: BS in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
As an Electrical Engineer, you will be responsible for the design, development, and lifecycle support of the electronics at the heart of our scientific instruments. You will own designs from concept through schematic capture, board layout, prototyping, and validation, and see them all the way through to production and end-of-life. Your work will directly shape the reliability, performance, and manufacturability of our products. The ideal candidate is self-motivated, hands-on, dynamic, and detail-oriented, with a solid technical background and demonstrable hands-on experience.
Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:
- Design, develop, and maintain electronic hardware for our instruments, including schematic capture and multi-layer PCB layout using Altium Designer
- Own printed circuit board designs end-to-end - from architecture and component selection through layout, bring-up, debug, and design verification testing
- Own end-of-life (EOL) activities, including component obsolescence monitoring, last-time-buy planning, identification and qualification of alternate components, and driving board revisions or redesigns as needed
- Support regulatory compliance activities, including safety and EMC certification testing and maintenance of associated technical documentation
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define electrical requirements and ensure traceability from requirements and specifications to design verification
- Support the transition of designs to manufacturing, including DFM/DFT reviews, test fixture support, and resolution of production issues
- Generate and maintain design documentation, including schematics, BOMs, test procedures, and design history files
- Recommend improvements to processes, technology, and interfaces that improve the effectiveness of the team and product quality in the spirit of continual improvement
Our Ideal Candidate Has:
- BS in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
- 5+ years experience working in a professional electrical or hardware engineering role
- Strong board design experience, including schematic capture and PCB layout of analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits
- Proficiency with Altium Designer for schematic capture, PCB layout, and library management
- Experience owning EOL activities, including component obsolescence management, last-time buys, and sustaining engineering of released products
- Experience taking designs through the full product lifecycle, from concept to production and end-of-life
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, coordination skills, and interpersonal skills
- Familiarity with embedded software development experience (C/C++ on microcontrollers) and Python scripting for test automation, data acquisition, and hardware bring-up
About you
You love a challenge and you're a life-long learner. You thrive off of solving technical challenges in the development of new products to meet short and long-term customer goals. You want to provide some of the world's top researchers with the best technology to help make research simple for them and help them get the data they need to make a difference in the world. You have excellent technical proficiency with a balanced understanding that user experience is everything. You love stepping out of your comfort zone while also keeping track of your day-to-day tasks. You want to be a part of a thriving small team and you have great communication and teamwork skills. You are motivated by making an impact on your workplace and you thrive on challenging problems. You have a proven track record for setting and meeting aggressive goals.
Members of the Hardware Team work cross-functionally within our organization, collaborating closely with mechanical, firmware, software, and manufacturing teams, and wearing whatever hat is needed at any given time. You need to be an excellent communicator and thrive in a small-team environment with fast-paced agile iterations. Your contributions will deliver meaningful impact to our customers and the company.
In June 2025, Nicoya acquired Applied Photophysics Limited, extending their portfolio of products to a suite of automated, high-throughput, and integrated tools to characterize the three most critical aspects of biologics: stability, structure, and function.
Currently, Nicoya is made up of 70+ passionate and talented engineers, scientists, and designers who have extensive experience working at the forefront of nanotechnology, biochemistry, and optical sensors. Nicoya is headquartered in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada's Silicon Valley, with a substantial office in Leatherhead, Surrey in the United Kingdom, and development projects typically span both locations.
