Key Skills

Job Description

Details Location: Leerdam, Netherlands (hybrid or remote) Employment: full-time or B2B Level: Middle / Senior We're partnering with a defence technology company developing and mass-producing autonomous systems for real-world deployment. This is a full-cycle hardware business where R&D, engineering, manufacturing and field operations sit close together, and where products evolve continuously based on direct operational feedback. The company is already operating at meaningful scale, with a growing ecosystem spanning UAVs, unmanned ground systems and communication technologies. As the product line expands, they're strengthening the hardware team. We're looking for a Hardware Electronics Engineer to join this team. The Role You'll design electronics for UAV components, primarily flight controllers and ESCs, and own the full hardware cycle from schematic to production-ready PCB. You'll take boards through layout, manufacturing outputs, DFM with fabs and assembly houses, and into the lab for bring-up and debugging, with your designs going into products that are built at volume and used in the field. For an engineer with a background in power electronics or motor control, this is an opportunity to work on compact, high-current boards where design decisions have direct, visible impact. Responsibilities Design schematics for flight controllers, ESCs and related UAV electronics: component selection, power stages, MCU circuits, sensors and interfaces Create multilayer PCB layouts in Altium, including high-current power routing, thermal management and signal integrity Prepare manufacturing outputs: Gerbers, BOM, pick-and-place, assembly drawings Support the DFM/DFA phase together with PCB fabs and assembly houses Bring up and debug prototypes, and fix issues found in testing Take part in peer design reviews, both giving and receiving feedback Maintain design documentation and component libraries Requirements 3+ years of hands-on hardware design experience (schematic and PCB layout) Strong working knowledge of Altium Designer Experience with multilayer PCBs and power electronics: DC-DC converters, MOSFET stages, current sensing Experience with microcontroller-based designs (e.g. STM32) and common interfaces: SPI, I2C, UART, CAN Practical understanding of DFM/DFA and work with PCB manufacturers Lab skills: oscilloscope, power supply, multimeter, soldering and rework Technical English sufficient to read datasheets and write documentation Would be a plus: direct experience with drone flight controllers or ESCs (BLDC motor drives, FOC); familiarity with ArduPilot, PX4 or Betaflight hardware ecosystems; EMC/EMI-aware design for compact, high-current boards; design for harsh environments (vibration, temperature); basic Python for test automation.

Core Responsibilities

Design electronics for UAV flight controllers, ESCs, and related components, taking hardware from schematics and PCB layout through manufacturing preparation and production. Support DFM/DFA, prototype bring-up and debugging, design reviews, and maintenance of technical documentation and component libraries.

Requirements

Requires at least three years of hands-on hardware design experience, strong Altium Designer skills, and experience with multilayer PCBs, power electronics, microcontroller-based designs, and common interfaces. Candidates should understand DFM/DFA and PCB manufacturing and have practical lab skills; technical English is needed for datasheets and documentation.