Senior Electronics Engineer
Department: SBU
Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Reports To: Director of Systems
Employment Type: Full-time permanent
Salary Range: $120,000 - $160,000 CAD per annum (commensurate with experience, technical depth, and leadership trajectory; see compensation details below)
Schedule: Monday – Friday, 40 hours per week, on-site presence required for lab, integration, and test work. Some travel to suppliers and customer sites may be required.
SUMMARY:
Sensor Technology Ltd. is hiring a senior founding electronics engineer to establish, lead, and grow a new electronics capability within the Systems Business Unit. The Senior Electronics Engineer is responsible for all stages of new product development (define, develop, integrate and validate) for the electronic sub-systems of Sensor Technology’s systems products. This role will support electronic architectures for high-performance underwater acoustic sensing systems, including towed array hydrophone systems (COMPASS), digitally distributed arrays (Guardian), embedded edge-processing platforms (WhisperLoop), low-noise analog front ends, digitization electronics, and distributed communications between subsystems.
The successful candidate will work across mixed-signal, digital, embedded, and systems-engineering domains, supporting the full product lifecycle from requirements definition and architecture through prototyping, board bring-up, debugging, verification, qualification, and production release. The role requires strong design skills, hands-on capability, disciplined documentation, and the ability to translate system-level performance requirements into practical electronic hardware, interface definitions, test methods, and supplier deliverables.
This position also includes technical coordination of vendors and subcontractors to ensure that printed circuit boards, electronic assemblies, specialized design services, test services, and subsystem deliverables meet SensorTech's requirements for performance, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and cost.
This is a senior individual contributor role with an explicit player-coach trajectory. A second, reporting, electronics hire is planned within approximately 3–6 months. Career path and leadership trajectory will be discussed openly during recruitment.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Electronics Design & Development
- Define system and subsystem requirements, electronics architectures, interfaces, and technical specifications for advanced acoustic sensing, instrumentation, and edge-processing platforms.
- Develop, review, and refine mixed-signal electronics architectures, including low-noise analog front ends, preamplifiers, digitizers, filtering, timing, synchronization, power distribution, and digital communications interfaces.
- Work across analog, digital, embedded, and power domains to ensure designs meet performance, manufacturability, reliability, cost, testability, and lifecycle objectives.
- Contribute directly to schematic design, circuit analysis, component selection, printed circuit board design review, and hardware trade studies as required.
- Support design-for-manufacture, design-for-test, maintainability, and production-readiness activities for electronic assemblies and integrated systems.
Testing, Qualification & Debugging
- Plan and execute functional testing, characterization, verification, and qualification activities for electronic assemblies, subsystems, and integrated sensing platforms.
- Develop test methods, fixtures, procedures, and acceptance criteria to evaluate noise performance, gain, bandwidth, timing, stability, environmental robustness, interface compliance, and system-level functionality.
- Troubleshoot and debug issues encountered during development, integration, test, qualification, production, and field feedback, and drive timely root-cause resolution.
- Support failure analysis, corrective actions, design changes, and continuous improvement based on test results, supplier findings, production feedback, or field observations.
Embedded & Edge Systems Integration
- Define and validate digital communications interfaces between sensors, digitizers, embedded processors, data acquisition systems, power subsystems, and external platforms.
- Collaborate with firmware, software, mechanical, acoustic, systems, manufacturing, and test teams to ensure reliable operation at the unit, subsystem, and integrated system levels.
- Support hardware-software integration, including interface timing, data throughput, synchronization, processor-to-peripheral communication, and diagnostic capability.
Vendor & Subcontractor Management
- Prepare technical requirements, statements of work, interface requirements, design constraints, verification requirements, and acceptance criteria for vendors and subcontractors.
- Coordinate external partners involved in printed circuit board fabrication, printed circuit board assembly, specialized electronics design, environmental testing, cable assemblies, embedded hardware, or subsystem supply.
- Review vendor deliverables, including schematics, layouts, bills of materials, test reports, manufacturing data packages, compliance evidence, and engineering change proposals.
- Monitor supplier technical performance, schedule, quality, and risk, and escalate issues early with clear technical recommendations.
- Work with suppliers to resolve design issues, clarify requirements, improve manufacturability, and support successful product realization.
- Establish internal verification and calibration checks that catch out-of-spec or uncalibrated vendor deliverables before they reach integration or customers
Documentation & Continuous Improvement
- Create and maintain clear technical documentation, including requirements, specifications, schematics, interface control documents, test procedures, verification plans, test reports, design records, and engineering change documentation.
- Convene design reviews, risk reviews, production readiness reviews, and technical decision forums.
- Contribute to engineering standards, reusable design practices, verification methods, and release processes for electronics development.
- Support transition to production by ensuring designs, drawings, build packages, bills of materials, test procedures, acceptance criteria, and maintenance documentation are complete, accurate, and buildable.
- Stay current with relevant technologies, tools, and design practices in mixed-signal electronics, embedded systems, low-noise measurement hardware, underwater sensing, and ruggedized electronic systems.
Team Building & Leadership
- Hire, mentor, and develop junior electronics team members as program demand scales, ensuring the electronics function grows deliberately and sustainably.
- Contribute to the definition, recruitment, and selection of the planned Year 2 electronics hire.
- Establish minimum-viable internal standards for design reviews, documentation, interface control documents, verification evidence, and supplier acceptance that will serve as the foundation for the growing electronics capability.
- Identify common building blocks (analog front ends, digitizer modules, interface standards) that can be reused across Compass, Guardian, and WhisperLoop to accelerate development and reduce risk.
KEY OUTCOMES:
- Clearly defined, testable, and manufacturable electronic system and subsystem architectures delivered for integrated sensing, digitization, communications, and edge-processing platforms.
- Reliable mixed-signal, digital communications, timing, power, and interface performance achieved across analog, digital, embedded, and integrated system domains.
- Successful completion of board bring-up, integration, verification, troubleshooting, qualification, and production-readiness activities with clear documentation and closure of technical issues.
- Effective technical management of vendors and subcontractors, resulting in high-quality external deliverables, reduced project risk, and improved schedule confidence.
- Well-documented hardware architectures, interface definitions, verification evidence, and production data packages that support integration, qualification, release, and long-term maintainability.
- Practical electronics solutions that support SensorTech's development of advanced underwater acoustic systems and future repeatable production.
- A functioning electronics capability foundation — standards, documentation practices, vendor discipline, and team development — established within the first year.
QUALIFICATIONS (Education, Skills, Assets):
- Clearly defined, testable, and manufacturable electronic system and subsystem architectures delivered for integrated sensing, digitization, communications, and edge-processing platforms.
- Reliable mixed-signal, digital communications, timing, power, and interface performance achieved across analog, digital, embedded, and integrated system domains.
- Successful completion of board bring-up, integration, verification, troubleshooting, qualification, and production-readiness activities with clear documentation and closure of technical issues.
- Effective technical management of vendors and subcontractors, resulting in high-quality external deliverables, reduced project risk, and improved schedule confidence.
- Well-documented hardware architectures, interface definitions, verification evidence, and production data packages that support integration, qualification, release, and long-term maintainability.
- Practical electronics solutions that support SensorTech's development of advanced underwater acoustic systems and future repeatable production.
- A functioning electronics capability foundation — standards, documentation practices, vendor discipline, and team development — established within the first year.
High Valued Assets
- Experience with Altium Designer is strongly preferred.
- Experience with hydrophones, underwater acoustic systems, sonar systems, data acquisition systems, instrumentation, or other sensitive sensing platforms.
- Experience with low-noise analog front ends, charge amplifiers, voltage preamplifiers, anti-aliasing filters, analog-to-digital converters, precision timing, and synchronized acquisition systems.
- Experience with digital communications protocols and physical interfaces used in embedded or instrumentation systems, such as SPI, I²C, UART, CAN, Ethernet, USB, LVDS, RS-422, or RS-485.
- Experience with system architecture, requirements definition, technical decomposition, interface control, and verification planning for complex electronic products.
- Experience with embedded systems, processor-based hardware, field-programmable gate arrays, microcontrollers, firmware programming, or hardware-software integration.
- Experience with ruggedized, marine, defence, industrial, or field-deployed electronic systems.
- Experience with environmental qualifications, reliability, electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic interference, vibration, thermal, or integration testing for electronic hardware.
- Experience managing technical work performed by vendors, printed circuit board assemblers, test houses, cable suppliers, or subcontract engineering resources.
- Experience supporting design-for-manufacture, design-for-test, production release, engineering change control, and transition from prototype to repeatable production.
- Familiarity with acoustic sensing, array systems, distributed sensors, long cable interfaces, or compact low-power electronics for constrained platforms.
COMPENSATION
Salary Range: $120,000 – $160,000 CAD, commensurate with experience, technical depth, relevance to mixed-signal electronics, embedded systems, marine or defence hardware, product qualification, production-readiness activities, and leadership trajectory.
Relocation Support: For candidates relocating to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, SensorTech may provide relocation assistance.
Performance Bonus: This position may be eligible for a performance-based bonus over a 24-month period, tied to defined individual, technical, project, and company milestones. Bonus eligibility, timing, and amount will be determined based on role performance, milestone achievement, and business requirements.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU
- Competitive compensation
-
Comprehensive paid time off including vacation and personal days
-
Health, dental, and wellness benefits to support your well-being
-
Ongoing learning and development opportunities to help you grow your career
-
Exposure to innovative, cutting-edge acoustic technology
-
A people-first culture, where collaboration, support, and inclusion matter
-
Engaging in company events and team activities that make work enjoyable
Sensor Technology is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. We encourage you to contact us if you require accommodation in the recruitment process or need this job posting in an alternative format.
We use AI-enabled tools to sort applicants based on job-related criteria. A human decides who moves forward.
While we appreciate your interest in employment with Sensor Technology Ltd., only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.
