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# Principal / Lead Hardware Engineer

- **Company:** Morson Group
- **Location:** Chatham, UK
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** £104,000.0 - £208,000.0
- **Contract:** Temporary to permanent
- **Skills:** Board Bringup, Altium Designer, Software Debugging, Digital Arts, Digital Electronics, Embedded Software, Ethernet, Firmware, Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Hardware Design, OrCAD, PCI Express, Schematic Capture, Signal Processing, Signal Integrity, Software Requirements Analysis, Static Timing Analysis, Systems Integration, Pcb Layout, Hardware Debugging
- **Published:** September 24, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.careerjet.co.uk/job/gb0ffa84bf39990152a6a35e97699834c0/eaa

## About the Role

Strong background in high-speed digital hardware design within defence, aerospace or other highly regulated industries.
Experience designing FPGA and SoC-based hardware (Xilinx, AMD, Intel/Altera or equivalent).
Proven experience designing complex multilayer PCBs, including:
High-speed serial interfaces
DDR memory
High-performance processors
FPGA-based digital signal processing
Experience using schematic capture and PCB design tools such as Altium Designer, OrCAD, Xpedition or equivalent.
Hands-on board-level debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analysers and protocol analysers.
Experience integrating hardware with embedded firmware and software.
Strong understanding of signal integrity, power integrity and timing analysis.
Experience supporting verification, validation and qualification activities.
Ability to translate system requirements into robust hardware designs.
Desirable Experience
Electronic Warfare, Radar, RF, Communications or Sensor technologies.
Development of safety-critical or mission-critical systems.
FPGA signal processing.
Knowledge of DO-254, DEF STAN, MIL-STD or equivalent industry standards.
Hardware design reviews and technical leadership.
Design for Manufacture (DfM), Design for Test (DfT) and Design for Reliability (DfR).

## Description

We're looking for an experienced Principal / Lead Hardware Engineer to join a major defence programme developing advanced electronic systems for air, land and maritime platforms.
This is a fantastic opportunity to work on complex FPGA and processor-based hardware, contributing throughout the full product lifecycle-from requirements capture and architecture through detailed design, integration, verification and qualification.
You'll be working alongside multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver high-performance electronic hardware for safety and mission-critical applications., Design and develop complex digital and mixed-signal electronic hardware.
Develop hardware architectures for FPGA, SoC and processor-based solutions.
Produce schematics and support PCB layout for high-speed digital designs.
Design and validate interfaces such as DDR memory, PCIe, Ethernet and other high-speed protocols.
Integrate hardware with embedded software, firmware and FPGA solutions.
Carry out simulation, verification, validation and design analysis activities.
Support board bring-up, hardware debugging and fault investigation.
Work collaboratively with Systems, Software, Firmware, RF, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering teams.
Support environmental, EMC/EMI and qualification testing.
Produce technical documentation throughout the engineering lifecycle.
Support system integration, demonstrations and customer acceptance activities where required.


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