Senior Specialist, Electrical Engineer – Advanced Electro-Optics

Location: Carlsbad, California
Work Arrangement: Fully Onsite
Employment Type: Full-Time
Industry: Aerospace & Defense / Electro-Optics
Schedule: 9/80 – Every Other Friday Off
Relocation Assistance: Available

Northwest Talent Solutions (NWTS) is conducting a confidential search for a Senior Specialist, Electrical Engineer to join an advanced engineering team developing precision electro-optical technologies for mission-critical applications.

If you're an electrical engineer who wants to own designs from concept through integration and test, this is an opportunity to work on sophisticated hardware alongside optical, mechanical, software, firmware and FPGA engineers.

This is a hands-on engineering role—not simply design oversight.

What You'll Do:

You'll take meaningful ownership across the development lifecycle, including:

• Design analog, digital, power and mixed-signal electronics
• Develop schematics, functional diagrams, block diagrams and electrical wiring diagrams
• Design, build and test mixed-signal low-voltage current driver boards
• Develop board-level solutions incorporating microcontrollers
• Program and debug microcontrollers using embedded C
• Design stepper motor control circuitry
• Translate system-level requirements into detailed implementation architectures
• Lead bench-level integration across hardware, software and FPGA designs
• Develop circuit analyses, performance budgets and supporting test data
• Create test plans and procedures to validate design performance
• Present designs and technical findings during peer and customer reviews
• Support trade studies evaluating technical, cost and schedule considerations
• Contribute to proposals and early program requirements definition
• Support product documentation and production release
• Own development efforts from initial concept through integration and test

What We're Looking For:

Strong candidates will bring experience across several of the following areas:

• Analog, digital and mixed-signal circuit design
• PCB/electronics design and simulation
• Microcontroller-based board design
• Embedded C programming and debugging
• Stepper motor control circuit design
• Hardware/software/FPGA integration
• Circuit integration and test
• Requirements decomposition and system architecture
• Design verification and technical documentation
• Experience carrying circuit designs through the complete development lifecycle

Experience with tools such as Altium, Xpedition, Cadence ConceptHDL, OrCAD, PADS Layout, SPICE and Mentor Graphics is highly relevant.

Candidates should have a bachelor's degree with approximately 6+ years of relevant experience, a graduate degree with 4+ years of relevant experience, or substantial equivalent professional experience.

Ability to obtain a U.S. Security Clearance is required.

Experience That Will Set You Apart:

We're especially interested in engineers who bring:

• An active TS/SCI clearance with Poly
• 4+ years of digital electronics design experience
• 4+ years taking circuit designs through development, integration and test
• Experience combining communications systems knowledge with analog, digital and FPGA design
• Strong understanding of electronics technology, component availability and design architecture
• Version-control experience, including Subversion
• Experience presenting complex engineering designs to technical and customer audiences

Why This Opportunity?

You'll work as part of an integrated engineering team developing advanced precision electro-optical technology where your designs have direct, real-world impact.

You'll also have something many experienced engineers value: technical ownership. You'll have the opportunity to follow your work from requirements and architecture through design, bench integration, testing and production release.

The organization provides comprehensive benefits, retirement programs, education assistance, paid time off, parental leave and a 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off.

Relocation assistance is available for qualified candidates.

Please note: this position is fully onsite in Carlsbad, California.

Why Work With Northwest Talent Solutions?

NWTS brings 20+ years of executive and specialized search expertise, combining AI-enabled talent intelligence with experienced, human-led recruiting.

For technical searches, we're interested in more than matching résumé keywords. We want to understand what you've designed, what you've built, what you've integrated and what you've successfully delivered.

Our process is confidential, targeted and designed to move qualified candidates efficiently.

If you're an experienced electrical engineer who enjoys remaining close to the technology and wants greater ownership of sophisticated hardware development, we'd like to hear from you.

Apply confidentially through Northwest Talent Solutions.