Sr. Hardware Engineer-North Carolina

Job Summary:

Perform electrical hardware design of printed circuit board assemblies for harsh environment Layer 2 and Layer 3 Industrial Ethernet Switches. Execute hardware verification on new products. Lifecycle support of products from inception to end of life, addressing any field issues that are not managed by the field support personnel. Provide input into Manufacturing processes so product may be successfully manufactured with low overhead. Analyze and interpret new product requirements to ensure design projects meet commercial objectives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Product design of Layer 2 and Layer 3 access and distribution network switches fully qualified for power utilities, oil and gas, industrial automation and process control, railway transportation (trackside), roadway transportation (traffic control), digital video recording (surveillance cameras), and any installation in outdoor applications.
  • DIN-Rail and Pizza box design with natural convection (no fans) to survive -40C to 75C outside ambient temperature.
  • Design to meet high levels of electromagnetic immunity (10Vrms conducted, and 10V/m radiated), and high levels of lightning surge (4kV).
  • Product design of interfaces include the following:
    • DC input and power entry design (24Vdc and 48Vdc systems).
    • 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet.
    • Power over Ethernet (PoE) up to IEEE 802.3bt (99W/port).
    • Fiber optic uplink supporting 100Base-FX, 1000Base-X, 10GBase-SR, 10GBase-LR, 10GBase-ER, and 10GBase-CX4.
• Digital circuit board level design.
• Low voltage power supply design.
• 48V power entry and delivery in Power over Ethernet (PoE) design.
• Analog circuit design.
• Design of embedded CPU and/or System on a Chip (SoC) complex with DDR3/DDR4 SDRAM, and Flash memory.
• Design using Ethernet Switch and PHY IC’s.
• Write functional specification, detailed specification, manufacturing test plan and designer test plan/results documents on all products that are developed.
• Interpret product requirement documents and translate into design requirements.
• Research and select new components to meet design requirements.
• Perform power and thermal calculations, and interface with Mechanical Design Engineer for optimal component placement floor plan to aid in thermal simulations.
• Provide guidance to PCB layout designer to implement bare PCB design.
• Provide EMC specific guidelines to PCB layout designer to meet EMC requirements.
• Interact with PCB supplier to design proper PCB stack up, ensuring all design requirements are properly met.
• Consider manufacturing limitations and constraints during the design and development of the product to meet Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), and Product Structure Checklist (PSC).
• Perform hardware bring up and designer test activities on new designs.
• Correct any issues identified during product compliance activities.
• Perform system level HW testing to validate proper functionality over the entire operational range of the product.
• Interact with suppliers and available resources to obtain new knowledge applicable to responsibilities. Share new knowledge with team members.

Experience, Skills & Abilities:

• 6 years with analog and digital design experience.
• 6 years with 24Vdc or 48Vdc power and low voltage power design.
• Required experience to be considered:

• Embedded CPU, microprocessor or System on a Chip design
• Networking design (1Gb and 10Gb Ethernet copper and optical, Switching, PHY’s, etc)

• Experience with Industrial temperature product design
• Experience with programmable logic a plus.
• Proficient with schematic entry.
• Experience with PCB layout techniques and concepts for high speed design and EMI compliance.
• Experience in designing products to meet Class A and B EMI requirements.
• Experience in designing products that meet harsh outdoor environment.
• Experience troubleshooting problems and identifying solutions.
• Knowledge of industrial temperature design.

Education / Training:

• BSEE/BSCE