Senior PCB Design Engineer

COMPANY VISION

Plextek is a leading choice for employees and customers for exceptional engineering and strategic innovation to create better, safer and more sustainable products and technologies.

OUR VALUES AND BELIEFS

Being a responsible business, we work with integrity and honesty.  We share success with staff and with our communities.

We embrace diversity in outlook and work as a team with colleagues, customers and suppliers to provide the best technical solution and professional service experience.

We empower each other, we’re adaptable, show initiative and deliver on our commitments together.

THE ROLE

As an enthusiastic and dynamic Senior PCB Design Engineer, highly skilled in PCB design and layout, you will be joining our manufacturing team helping to bring design engineers’ ideas into reality. You will work with world class RF, digital, power and analogue electronics designers on leading edge technology developments in commercial, industrial and defence sectors.

As part of a multi-disciplinary team, you will be responsible for timely delivery of PCB designs and be accustomed to being highly engaged in the collaborative design process that delivers working designs in an optimum timeframe to meet our commercial commitments.

A well organised and highly motivated individual with good communications skills, you will also be responsible for maintaining our technology edge with regards to PCB manufacturing and design by being actively involved in developing our relationship with suppliers of PCB CAD, PCB manufacturing services and other services associated with PCB technology.

You will have experience of the design delivery process for releasing board information to PCB manufacturers and external PCB build contractors and be used to negotiating with suppliers to achieve the technical quality and timescales required to keep ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

This role is more than a PCB designer – the right candidate will help to lead and develop our capability in this area, with a drive towards excellence, reporting to the Director of Hardware.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Generating Manufacturable designs from engineers’ schematic
• Schematic and PCB footprint library management, scripting for BoM and generating manufacturing data-packs and other automated tasks.
• Maintaining our relationship with suppliers involving auditing suppliers, managing supplier relationships and understanding advances in PCB technology solutions
• Negotiating stack-ups, supplier timescales and costs with PCB and build contractors, taking technical responsibility for the PCB design and manufacture, and being responsible to project managers for tracking of deliverables from external suppliers.
• Ensure deliverables are to the agreed timescale, specification, and quality in accordance with company’s ISO9001 Quality procedures.
• Perform both internal & external customer design reviews with good presentation skills. Maintain high professional standards and drive towards execution efficiency.

COMPETENCIES

• A strong portfolio of successfully completed PCB design projects. Experience of PCBs for RF, microwave and millimetre-wave designs is highly desirable, including experience of working with RF materials.
• High skill level using PCB design tools. experience of Altium for schematic capture and PCB layout essential. Familiarity with Siemens PADS software for legacy designs would be an advantage.
• Strong working knowledge of Surface Mount Technology, Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM) techniques.
• Good working knowledge of IPC standards for high reliability products and EMI/EMC requirements for best design practice.
• Experience of product design & development and ability to closely integrate with the electronic and mechanical design teams.
• Ability to innovate and help hardware & mechanical engineers resolve challenging design tasks. Confident working under pressure, self-motivated and able to work independently.
• Confident communicator capable of engaging with external suppliers and internal stakeholders to help negotiate best outcomes.

Essential

• Candidates should have an HNC/HND or degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, supported by relevant industry experience and a specialisation in PCB design.
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in electronics hardware design and product development.

THE REWARDS

• In return, we offer an excellent package and a stimulating environment that will encourage you to be your best. Salary and job title will be based on your experience and expertise. We provide the training, professional development and support that you need to complete your projects. We are a versatile business and are able to support career progression in many dimensions including technical, commercial and managerial. We offer hybrid working potential with 3 days required in the office.
• We are based just south of Cambridge with easy road and rail routes to the vibrant city centre. We provide a friendly and supportive working environment including regular on-site and off-site social events.