Hardware Engineer

**The Role** **SM:ART has moved beyond the lab. Its first integrated prototype is complete and deployed in the field, commercial engagement is progressing strongly, and Technological University Dublin is now seeking a proactive, commercially minded, and practically experienced Hardware Engineer to help rigorously validate, challenge, and harden the platform for wider deployment and its next stage of commercial growth.** **The core SM:ART hardware, PCB designs, and firmware have already been developed. This role is not centred on building a first prototype; it is about putting a working, field\-deployed system under pressure, exposing weaknesses, resolving critical issues, and generating clear evidence that it is robust, repeatable, and ready for the next phase beyond the current Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund project and initial field trials.** **Working closely with the Principal Investigator, Dr Sean Bond, and a multidisciplinary team of engineers and commercial partners, you will take hands\-on ownership of the validation and hardening cycle—from test strategy and failure\-mode analysis through laboratory and field stress testing, root\-cause diagnosis, targeted corrective changes, regression testing, and product\-readiness evidence.** **This is an excellent opportunity for an applied researcher or engineer who understands how complex sensing products are built but is motivated by proving them. You will be encouraged to challenge assumptions, recreate difficult faults, and find the edge cases before customers and demanding deployment environments do.** **Key Responsibilities** * Independently review the existing SM:ART system architecture, electronics, PCB designs, firmware, sensing, communications, and power\-management functions to identify technical risks and potential failure modes. * Define and maintain structured verification and validation plans, test procedures, acceptance criteria, and traceable product\-readiness evidence. * Carry out rigorous bench\-level, firmware, system\-integration, reliability, and performance testing using appropriate electronic test and measurement equipment. * Battle\-test devices through extended operation, repeated power cycling, environmental exposure, ingress checks, thermal variation, vibration, shock, communications disruption, power irregularities, and realistic misuse or edge\-case conditions where appropriate. * Evaluate devices already operating in the field, capture and reproduce issues, and support trials, demonstrations, pilot installations, and deployment troubleshooting. * Investigate failures using structured root\-cause analysis and maintain a clear record of defects, their severity, corrective actions, and residual risks. * Implement targeted corrections to existing hardware, PCBs, firmware, sensing, communications, or power systems where testing identifies a weakness. * Complete regression and repeatability testing to verify that corrections are effective and do not introduce new faults. * Develop repeatable test jigs, fixtures, harnesses, and automated or semi\-automated methods that improve test coverage, consistency, and speed. * Assemble, solder, modify, rework, and instrument electronic assemblies and small device batches safely and to a high standard. * Assess design\-for\-manufacture, design\-for\-assembly, design\-for\-test, reliability, cost, and component\-availability risks affecting the next product phase. * Maintain accurate hardware and firmware versions, issue logs, test reports, quality\-control records, and release recommendations. * Coordinate technical work with suppliers, manufacturers, contractors, and project partners, and communicate clear evidence of device readiness and remaining technical risk. **Person Specification** **The ideal candidate will demonstrate the appropriate mix of knowledge, experience, and skills required for the role and must satisfy all essential criteria.** **Essential** * A PhD in Electronic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, Instrumentation, Mechatronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related discipline, * Proven hands\-on experience validating, debugging, and improving electronic instrumentation, sensor systems, or connected products, with the ability to diagnose faults across analogue and digital electronics, PCBs, embedded systems, and integrated devices. (Essential). * Practical experience developing and debugging embedded firmware in C/C\+\+ or a comparable language for microcontrollers and connected devices. (Essential). * Demonstrable experience planning and carrying out systematic hardware verification, validation, reliability, stress, or integration testing using appropriate electronic test equipment and documented procedures. (Essential). * Strong hands\-on capability in electronics assembly, soldering, modification, rework, measurement, and diagnosis in laboratory, workshop, and field settings. (Essential). * All applicants must provide a current CV and cover letter addressing the job spec and why the applicant meets ALL the essential criteria. **Desirable** * Experience with low\-power or battery\-operated sensor and IoT devices, including analogue or mixed\-signal interfaces and wireless communications. (Desirable). * Experience developing or validating resilient hardware for outdoor, industrial, infrastructure, or other harsh operating environments. (Desirable). * Experience with environmental, durability, EMC, burn\-in, accelerated\-life, production\-acceptance, or automated fixture\-based testing. (Desirable). * Experience taking broad technical ownership in a start\-up, spin\-out, commercialisation project, or small multidisciplinary product team. (Desirable). * Experience moving electronic products from a working field prototype towards repeatable manufacture and wider deployment, including DFM, DFT, supplier engagement, cost awareness, and component lifecycle management. (Desirable). **The Opportunity** **SM:ART is no longer a laboratory concept. Its first integrated prototype is deployed in the field, industry engagement is building, and the next objective is to convert that progress into a thoroughly validated, reliable, and repeatable product platform.** **Your work will directly shape readiness for wider deployment, repeatable manufacture, and the next stage of commercial growth beyond the current funded project. The objective is straightforward: expose weaknesses now, resolve them properly, and make SM:ART battle\-ready for what comes next.** **Location** **The successful candidate will be based at TU Dublin (Grangegorman, Blanchardstown, Bolton Street, or Tallaght campus), with occasional travel to field\-test sites as required.** **Salary \& Contract** **Full\-time (37 hours per week), fixed term specified purpose contract up to seven months, from 12 October 2026 up to 1 May 2027\.** **Salary aligned to Point 1 of the IUA Post\-Doctoral Researcher (PD1\) salary scale (€47,273 gross per annum), in line with public sector pay policy.** **Closing Date** 28 September 2026 **Late applications will not be accepted.** Please send CV and cover letter to SM\-ART@tudublin.ie. Any applicants who do not meet all essential criteria will not be considered for this role. Any applicants who do not provide an accompanying cover letter with CV will not be shortlisted.