Hardware engineer Jobs in Thornton, CO

Electrical Engineer II - Full-Lifecycle Hardware / Scientific Instrumentation
Iris Scientific Inc. - Greater Denver, CO, United States

Location: Greater Denver, CO (Relocation Available)
Compensation: $125K Base Salary (some flexibility for the right candidate)
Benefits: Health, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Long Term Disability, 401K, Tuition Reimbursement
Contact: Andrew Millar; andrew.millar@irisscientific.com; 647-205-7151

Iris Scientific is a specialist recruitment agency focused on technical and commercial roles within the North American scientific instrumentation sector.

We're partnering with a global developer of advanced photonics and precision instrumentation (confidential) to hire an Electrical Engineer II for their Colorado R&D team.

The Opportunity

This is a hands-on role for an engineer who has owned electrical design end-to-end, from concept through to production and the field, and wants to keep doing that work with the backing of a larger, well-resourced team.

You'll join a small, highly technical group developing low-noise laboratory instrumentation and precision photonics hardware. The work spans the full product lifecycle: designing circuits, laying out boards, bringing up prototypes, and seeing them through to reliable, manufacturable products.

This isn't a narrow seat. You'll design real hardware and see it through build, test, and sustaining, without throwing anything over the wall, because there's no wall here.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design and capture schematics for analog and mixed-signal instrumentation
• Lay out and review multi-layer PCBs
• Bring up prototypes: build, debug, validate, and characterize new hardware
• Develop test procedures, build documentation, and manufacturing instructions
• Take products through NPI into low-volume, high-complexity production
• Troubleshoot issues across bring-up, validation, and early production
• Support existing product lines: component obsolescence, design improvements, field issues
• Collaborate closely with mechanical, software, and photonics engineers

Why This Role Is Different

• Genuine ownership of the full design cycle, not a fragment of it
• A larger, experienced team behind you, with room for some role specialization
• Both design and sustaining work, so you won't be boxed into one or the other
• Hands-on environment: you'll build your own cables, do your own rework, and work directly with the people who build and test what you design
• A stable, well-resourced home for engineers who've carried too much alone and want a steadier, more predictable seat without losing the interesting work

What You Bring

• BS in Electrical or Computer Engineering (MSEE a plus)
• 5+ years of hardware design experience with a BS, or 2+ years with an MS

Core Experience (What Really Matters)

• A track record across the full EE product cycle: ideation, design, layout, bring-up, and sustaining
• Signal-chain design: sensor to ADC to microcontroller/microprocessor
• Practical analog design beyond academic exercises: transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), filters, mixing, matched impedances
• A real working understanding of how op-amps behave in practice: gain-bandwidth, input offset, bias currents, input-referred noise, output drive
• Experience integrating and bringing up a microcontroller (microprocessor bring-up a strong plus)
• Comfortable working with your hands: rework, cabling, and lab bring-up are part of the job

Technical Environment

• Altium preferred (other EDA tools fine)
• Lab bench: oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, signal generators
• Mixed-signal systems, analog and digital
• USB, Ethernet, I2C, SPI, UART

Nice to Have

• FPGA toolchain exposure, bonus if you've built and run test vectors, not just written logic
• Power design awareness (linear vs. switching, and when to use each)
• ADC/DAC specification experience
• Test automation (Python, LabVIEW, C/C++)
• Prior experience in scientific instrumentation, photonics, or precision measurement

The Right Background

The strongest candidates have often been the EE, or one of a small handful, at a smaller hardware company. You've had to come up with the idea, design the circuit, lay out the board, get it built, bring it up, and deal with the failures that came back. It's demanding work, and the people who've done it well tend to be looking for a bigger team and a bit more support without giving up the parts they enjoy.

Other Requirements

• US Citizenship or Green Card required
• Willingness to relocate (relocation support available)

Process Note

Full company details will be shared prior to formal submission.