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# Senior Hardware Technical Lead

- **Company:** Viasat, Inc.
- **Location:** Farnborough, UK
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Computer-Aided Design, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Hardware Design, Schematic Capture, Strategies of Testing, SC Clearance, Pcb Layout
- **Published:** July 2, 2026
- **Apply:** https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=098a514905768c8b

## About the Role

* Experience: 10+ years of experience within the hardware engineering and electronic design domain.
 * Education: Degree in Electronic Engineering or similar discipline.
 * Technical Enablement: Experience defining processes and toolsets across PCB, FPGA, and Mechanical disciplines.
 * Quality Frameworks: Ability to implement engineering governance and design review metrics across hardware ecosystems.
 * Security: Must be a UK sole national and have or, be capable of obtaining, UK security clearance.

What will help you on the job:

 * FPGA Workflows: Familiarity with programmable logic integration and high-speed interfaces.
 * Manufacturing Optimization: Knowledge of DFT and DFM methodologies.
 * Defence Industry Expertise: Proven experience designing, developing, and delivering electronic products tailored for defence, high-assurance, or aerospace applications.
 * Mentorship over Management: Proven track record of coaching engineers to improve output quality without administrative heavy-handedness.

## Description

In this role, you will work alongside systems engineering and project managers to ensure teams hit their deadlines and meet all internal and external project milestones.
The day-to-day:

Governance & Technical Enablement

 * Process & Tool Ownership: Define and improve the unified hardware development lifecycle and CAD/simulation toolsets.
 * Targeted Oversight: Provide deep-dive architectural guidance focusing on electronic/mechanical integration and thermal management.
 * Multi-Disciplinary Governance: Enforce quality standards and stage-gated peer reviews across PCB, Mechanical, and FPGA teams.
 * Enabling: Support engineering schedules by proactively removing barriers to ensure technical progress.

Team Mentorship & Development

 * Staff Mentorship: Lead, coach, and support career development across the hardware engineering team.
 * Skill Cultivation: Identify training needs, skills gaps, and recruitment requirements to meet business goals.
 * Collaborative Culture: Foster cross-discipline synergy between FPGA, mechanical, and board designers, and the wider engineering team.

Project Execution & Technical Delivery

 * Detailed Architectural Design: Lead detailed electronic architecture design, schematic capture, high-speed digital board design, and PCB layout oversight.
 * Verification & Test Strategy: Spearhead rigorous hardware design verification (DV) testing.
 * New Product Introduction (NPI): Own the technical NPI hardware lifecycle, ensuring seamless handovers to manufacturing.
 * Sustaining Engineering: Provide technical support to resolve complex manufacturing, test, and component obsolescence issues on existing lines.


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