Embedded Engineer

Xcimer Energy•Denver, CO

19h•Onsite

About The Position

Xcimer Energy is hiring a full-time, onsite Embedded Engineer at its headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The engineer will design, bring up, and integrate custom electronics and firmware for systems that sense, time, control, and protect the company’s laser and pulsed-power systems. Initial work will support the directed energy program, which is developing multi-kilojoule-class pulsed lasers for air-defense applications. Working within the Electrical Engineering department, the engineer will own assigned boards and firmware from requirements through fabrication, bring-up, testing, and deployment. The role involves independent work on problems of diverse scope, with review at key design milestones. The engineer will collaborate across engineering and manufacturing teams, contribute to departmental standards, and help improve systems through feedback from end users.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related STEM field.
Typically 5 or more years of relevant experience spanning embedded hardware and firmware development, or a PhD with relevant hands-on embedded experience.
Solid foundation in analog and digital circuit design, including mixed-signal PCB design and power-supply design.
Experience with embedded C/C++ on bare-metal and RTOS-based targets, including peripheral configuration at the register level.
Understanding of real-time systems, interrupts, DMA, and deterministic timing.
Understanding of signal integrity, grounding, and EMI/EMC fundamentals.
Proficiency debugging hardware and firmware together using JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers.
Working knowledge of microcontroller families such as ARM Cortex-M (including STM32, NXP, or TI) and at least one RTOS, such as FreeRTOS or Zephyr.
Working knowledge of common communication interfaces, including SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, Ethernet, and USB.
Experience with Git and structured design and code review processes.
Ability to work independently on problems of diverse scope, with work reviewed at critical milestones, and to communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences.
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance if required by future program work; a clearance is not required at hire.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, a U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related STEM field.
Experience designing electronics and firmware for high-voltage, pulsed-power, or laser environments, including isolation, fiber-optic signaling, interlocks, and fault handling.
Experience with FPGA development (Xilinx/AMD, Intel, or Microchip), HDL, and high-speed ADC/DAC interfaces.
Experience with embedded Linux (Yocto or Buildroot, device trees, and kernel drivers) on ARM SoC platforms.
Familiarity with industrial control platforms such as Beckhoff TwinCAT/EtherCAT and PLCs, and protocols such as EtherCAT, Modbus, or EPICS.
Proficiency in design principles for data acquisition, signal processing, and test automation.
Experience with precision timing and trigger distribution, such as PTP, White Rabbit, or IRIG.
Knowledge of DFM/DFT practices and experience working with contract manufacturers.
Experience mentoring junior engineers or leading small projects.

Responsibilities

Design, simulate, and lay out mixed-signal printed circuit boards, including schematic capture, component selection, and multilayer layout in Altium Designer.
Design, implement, and maintain firmware for microcontroller- and FPGA-SoC-based boards in C/C++, including drivers, board support, communication stacks, and application logic.
Own assigned boards and firmware end to end: derive requirements with system owners, produce design documentation, present at design reviews, manage fabrication and assembly, and support installation and commissioning.
Perform board bring-up and register- and signal-level debugging; identify hardware and firmware root causes and document design changes to resolve findings.
Implement deterministic real-time control and data acquisition, including interrupt handling, DMA, timing and trigger capture, and RTOS-based execution.
Integrate custom electronics with the broader control system, including PLC and EtherCAT I/O, LabVIEW- and Python-based data acquisition, and precision timing and trigger networks.
Develop test procedures, automated test fixtures, hardware-in-the-loop tests, and regression tests; document verification and acceptance results.
Solicit feedback from end users, including operators, physicists, and controls engineers, and improve designs iteratively.
Lead small projects or work packages, coordinate with controls, mechanical, software, and manufacturing teams, and begin mentoring junior engineers and interns.
Contribute to Electrical Engineering department standards, including design guides, component libraries, coding standards, shared firmware libraries, and design review practices.