Embedded Hardware Engineer

Swarmbotics AI•Phoenix, AZ

41d•Onsite

About The Position

Swarmbotics is on the forefront of deploying unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) swarms for defense applications and is seeking a highly skilled Embedded Hardware Engineer to join our dynamic team. This role is crucial in designing, developing, testing, and maintaining the electronic systems and components that power our unmanned ground vehicles. The engineer in this role will be responsible for design of the FireAnt's main board — the robot's single main PCBA, spanning power conversion and distribution, the high-current motor bus, an embedded microcontroller subsystem, Ethernet switching and PoE, CAN networking, and sensor and payload I/O — across its full lifecycle: requirements and architecture, circuit design and PCB layout, power management, embedded firmware, board bring-up, and support of fielded robots. The selected candidate will have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects, contributing to the development of advanced robotics systems from the ground up.

Requirements

Proficiency in designing mixed-signal and power circuits for battery-powered systems — battery input and precharge, high-side MOSFET switching with gate-drive design, DC-DC conversion (buck/boost, PoE), and protection circuits (TVS, signal isolation, keyed connectors, fusing) for a motor bus.
Experience with schematic capture and multi-layer PCB layout in Altium Designer — multi-layer boards with high-current copper planning per IPC-2221/2152, IPC Class 3 manufacturing targets, high-speed routing (RGMII Ethernet, differential pairs, length matching), and design for manufacturing: releasing fab packages, writing ECOs, and managing quotes and batch quality with contract manufacturers.
Experience working alongside Mechanical design teams for PCBA mechanical integration – negotiating restrictions on component placement, mounting, thermal interfaces, and designing around shock/vibe requirements.
Knowledge of power distribution and management for battery-powered vehicles — per-load switching and fusing, hardware-enforced power sequencing, thermal design and margin analysis.
Experience developing the embedded firmware that runs the board — STM32 (ARM Cortex-M) in C with FreeRTOS, CAN/FDCAN, and Ethernet (lwIP), including driver-level work such as hardware PTP timestamping, plus firmware release and fleet update management.
Ability to integrate the board with the rest of the robot — defining CAN interfaces with the software team, designing connectors and wiring harnesses with vendors, and interfacing to compute, ESCs, GNSS, IMU, satcom, radios, and payload ports.
Skills in board bring-up and validation — oscilloscope-level debug, bench power testing at full load, thermal testing, SMD rework, and environmental design informed by MIL-STD-810H thermal, shock, and vibration methods.
Experience working alongside Mechanical design teams for PCBA mechanical integration.
Experience designing fault detection and health telemetry (latching fault flags, temperature and current sensing reported over CAN) and root-causing field failures back to definitive design fixes.
Comfortable working in the high-paced, fluid environment of a tech startup.
Excited to contribute to the defense of the United States and its allies.
Able to obtain and hold a U.S. security clearance.
Ability to work onsite in the Phoenix, AZ area.

Nice To Haves

Prior work on unmanned vehicles.
Background in high-reliability electronics for military or industrial applications in harsh environments.
Manual board-level rework skills. Experience replacing ICs and passive components, as well as point-to-point wiring for prototype PCB rework.
Strong embedded C/C++ skills and experience with hardware-software interfacing.
Familiarity with simulation tools such as SPICE or MATLAB.
Experience with precision network time sync — PTP grandmaster operation, PPS/NMEA distribution, embedded Ethernet switch integration.
NDAA and country-of-origin-aware component selection, alternates sourcing, and cost-conscious BOM management.
Wiring-harness design and vendor management — drawings, BOMs, ampacity requirements, first-article inspection.
Proven track record of designing and shipping electronics for robotics or similar products through multiple production revisions.

Responsibilities

Design of the FireAnt's main board, including power conversion and distribution, high-current motor bus, embedded microcontroller subsystem, Ethernet switching and PoE, CAN networking, and sensor and payload I/O.
Full lifecycle management of the main board: requirements and architecture, circuit design and PCB layout, power management, embedded firmware, board bring-up, and support of fielded robots.
Designing mixed-signal and power circuits for battery-powered systems.
Schematic capture and multi-layer PCB layout.
Designing power distribution and management for battery-powered vehicles.
Developing embedded firmware for the board.
Integrating the board with the rest of the robot.
Board bring-up and validation.
Designing fault detection and health telemetry.
Root-causing field failures back to definitive design fixes.