Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Engineer

About the role

We are looking for an experienced engineer to manage and maintain our fleet of Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) rigs. You will help develop, integrate and deploy real-time Hardware-In-the-Loop simulation solutions.

Responsibilities

• Manage and scale our growing fleet of HIL rigs that have diverse requirements and run on both ARM and x86 architectures.
• Integrate, test, deploy, and maintain HIL solutions that involve third-party hardware, specifically focusing on Group 1-3 sUAS platforms and companion computers.
• Design, build, and integrate Applied’s simulators with HIL hardware and flight stack software (e.g., ArduPilot, PX4) to solve for our customers’ autonomous validation use-cases.
• Configure, flash, and manage firmware across various flight controllers (like Pixhawk) and auxiliary hardware for automated testing.
• Develop and maintain automation scripts (Python, Bash) for system provisioning, health-checking, and monitoring of the HIL fleet.
• Design custom wiring harnesses or interface boards to bridge flight controllers, sensors, networking equipment, and simulation hosts.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex hardware-software integration issues, including timing constraints, MAVLink latency, and serial communication faults.
• Collaborate closely with embedded software and simulation teams to ensure high-fidelity sensor data and flight dynamics translate accurately to the physical hardware.

Requirements

• Extensive experience deploying, managing, and maintaining complex hardware systems on both ARM and x86 architectures.
• Strong proficiency in Linux environments, utilizing the command line for system configuration, performance tuning, and troubleshooting.
• Excellent networking skills, including a deep understanding of IP networking (TCP/UDP, routing, subnets) and experience diagnosing network bottlenecks in real-time environments.
• Deep, hands-on hardware debugging capabilities using standard lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and multimeters.
• A solid understanding of standard embedded communication interfaces (UART, I2C, SPI, CAN) commonly used in sUAS hardware.
• Experience writing robust automation, testing, and infrastructure scripts in Python or Bash.
• Experience building or maintaining Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines that interact directly with hardware test benches.
• A strong sense of ownership and the ability to work cross-functionally to drive ambiguous hardware/software integration problems to resolution.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience with Group 1-3 sUAS (small Unmanned Aircraft Systems) hardware and flight controllers, particularly Pixhawk.
• Familiarity with configuring, debugging, and integrating open-source flight stack software such as ArduPilot and PX4.
• Experience developing applications for Real-time Operating Systems (RTOS) such as RT-Linux or NuttX (commonly used with PX4).