Hardware Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: In-office at Aviation Business Park, Bournemouth International Airport, Christchurch, Dorset, United Kingdom; occasional UK and overseas travel.

Company

hirify.global powered by Spherea delivers test, quality, and validation solutions for complex and safety-critical aerospace, defence, and technology products and systems.

What you will do

• Analyse customer and system requirements and develop hardware concepts, feasibility studies, and system architectures.
• Design and integrate electrical and electronic hardware for automated and manual test systems, including instrumentation, power supplies, switching, data acquisition, communications, and control equipment.
• Define interfaces between test systems, units under test, and associated equipment; support bespoke electronic assemblies and PCB development where required.
• Produce schematics, wiring diagrams, interface definitions, bills of materials, design calculations, manufacturing information, and verification documentation.
• Prepare costings and estimates, participate in design reviews, and manage functional, safety, reliability, maintainability, cost, schedule, technical risk, and obsolescence considerations.
• Support procurement, manufacture, assembly, integration, fault investigation, verification, validation, qualification, factory acceptance testing, installation, commissioning, customer acceptance, and CE/UKCA conformity activities.

Requirements

• Degree, HNC, or HND in electronic, electrical, aerospace engineering, or a related discipline.
• Experience in an electrical or electronic hardware design role with a sound understanding of analogue and digital electronics.
• Experience developing electrical or electronic equipment through the engineering lifecycle and selecting or integrating components, instrumentation, or commercial hardware.
• Ability to produce clear electrical schematics, wiring information, and supporting design documentation.
• Practical fault-finding and diagnostic skills, ideally to component level, with an understanding of manufacturing, assembly, integration, and test processes.
• Ability to interpret technical requirements, solve problems methodically, and develop robust, practical solutions.
• Effective written and verbal communication, collaborative working skills, and ownership of engineering activities through completion.
• Awareness of cost, schedule, technical risk, and configuration control in a project-based environment.
• Full UK-valid driving licence, ability to meet company vehicle-insurance requirements, and the right to work in the UK. Applicants must also be eligible to obtain and maintain the UK national security clearance required for the role; additional nationality, residency, or export-control restrictions may apply to some projects.

Nice to have

• Experience in aerospace, defence, space, rail, energy, regulated sectors, or automated and special-to-type test equipment.
• Experience with 19-inch rack systems, electrical cabinets, wiring, data acquisition, instrumentation, signal conditioning, or control systems.
• PCB design tools such as Altium, KiCad, or OrCAD; microcontroller firmware; or FPGA design and debugging.
• Power electronics, high-voltage systems, electrical safety, EMC design, or compliance experience.
• Knowledge of Ethernet, RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, CAN, SPI, or I²C interfaces and protocols.
• Experience with National Instruments hardware, LabVIEW, TestStand, SolidWorks Electrical, or another electrical CAD package.
• Experience with CE/UKCA conformity, electrical safety standards, requirements management, verification and validation, obsolescence management, legacy equipment replacement, maintainability, or long-operational-life design.
• Experience in multidisciplinary engineering teams, defence customer environments, or security-classified programmes.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative and supportive team with international engineering, manufacturing, and support capabilities.
• Generous pension scheme with 4% employee and 8% employer contributions.
• Full family healthcare plan, family health cash plan, life assurance, and income protection insurance.
• 27 days of holiday plus bank holidays.
• Continuous learning and professional growth opportunities, with ESG central to the company mission.