Senior Electrical Engineer

Founded in 1918, Kearfott Corporation is a global Aerospace and Defense supplier and leader in the design and manufacture of precision motion control products and inertial navigation components. With over a century of expertise, Kearfott is dedicated to providing quality, reliability, and cutting-edge technology to meet sea, land, air, and space navigation and guidance requirements.

About the role

Exciting opportunity for a Senior Electrical Engineer to work within our Motion and Sensors Division in Black Mountain, North Carolina. In this role, you will lead the design, development, and execution of projects utilizing embedded electronic controls for Kearfott’s range of electromechanical devices: actuators and brushless DC (BLDC) motors, in the aerospace and defense markets.

This position requires a solid understanding of analog and digital circuit design and layout, power electronics, high-speed digital interfaces, FPGAs, DSPs, microcontrollers, DACs/ADCs, electric motor control theory, embedded software/firmware, system controls, and overall system mathematical modeling.

The Senior Electrical Engineer is responsible for reviewing and interpreting customer requirements, both technical and programmatic, and assessing the level of effort required to fulfill them in terms of time and material from an electronics perspective. This role also contributes to sales proposal efforts, prototype development, and other New Product Introduction (NPI) activities culminating in the transition of new products into production.

Responsibilities

• Develops electronic architectures and implements specific designs for control of Kearfott components and systems.
• Understands manufacturing and overall design trade-offs (practical, realizable implementation of designs).
• Develops and validates system performance models and predictions.
• Participates as a member of a cross-functional project team including software engineers, mechanical engineers, manufacturing engineers, program managers, technicians, and sales/customer support staff.
• Supports product improvement and cost reduction initiatives.
• Performs and/or coordinates design analyses using Matlab®, Mathcad®, Pspice®, or other computer-aided engineering/simulation tools.
• Prepares, maintains, and adheres to project schedules and specific electronics project management tasks.
• Travels, as required, to support market development and customer needs.
• Supports electronics cost proposal activity.
• Supports and fosters relationships with customers’ engineering teams.

Requirements

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering required; M.S. in Electrical Engineering preferred.
• Minimum 4+ years of direct/related experience in digital motion controls and power electronic design, including experience with:
  • DC and AC Motors
  • Rotary and linear power transmission components (gears, ballscrews, etc.)
  • Various position feedback devices (resolvers, RVDT/LVDT, encoders, etc.)
  • DSP/FPGA-based servo systems
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.

Skills

• Technical versatility in electronics design, electronics hardware/software integration, and system electromechanical integration.
• Experience in industry standards such as DO-254, DO-178C, MIL-STD-882E is a plus.
• Knowledge of relevant DO-160, MIL-STD-461, IPC, and IEC standards for electronics development.
• Efficient execution of design and/or proposal analyses using Altium, Matlab®, Mathcad®, and Pspice® (or other computer-aided engineering/simulation tools).
• Familiarity with electronic components and test equipment (oscilloscopes, power analyzers, etc.).
• Systems engineering (requirements-based design and project execution).
• Analog and digital circuit design.
• Printed circuit board (PCB) layout, manufacturing, and assembly processes.
• Electromagnetic interference and susceptibility design methods.
• Experience with lightning protection.
• Customer-centric attitude.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to motivate and lead cross-functional teams.
• Action-oriented, responsive, thorough, and attention to detail.
• Accepts and positively responds to constructive criticism to improve personal and project performance.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package including health insurance.
• Sick leave pay and vacation pay.
• 401K retirement plan.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off.

Schedule

This is an on-site role (100%) at our Black Mountain, NC facility. Relocation assistance is available.