Embedded hardware engineer

At Project Picoballoon, we’re building the next generation of atmospheric monitoring with ultra-light, solar-powered balloons that autonomously travel the globe, gathering real-time weather data at a fraction of the cost of satellites.

Our mission is clear: make high-quality environmental data accessible, affordable, and scalable for researchers, governments, and communities worldwide. By revolutionizing climate monitoring, we’re not just improving weather prediction, we’re providing critical information for climate resilience and disaster prevention.

Key responsibilities

• Design, develop, and test hardware for ultralight atmospheric probes, including RF systems, sensors, and thermal management.

• Create and optimize schematic designs, PCB layouts, and manufacturing data.

• Design RF systems, including antenna matching, impedance tuning, and signal integrity optimization.

• Oversee manufacturing and assembly processes, ensuring quality and reliability.

• Conduct hardware validation, troubleshooting, and performance testing in lab and field environments.

• Develop and maintain low-level firmware packages for microcontrollers, focusing on hardware abstraction layers (HAL), component drivers, and power management.

• Collaborate with other hardware and software engineers to ensure tight system integration.

Required skills and experience

• Final-year university student or graduate in Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, or a related field.

• PCB design experience, including schematic capture, layout, and routing (preferably in KiCad).

• Basic experience with low-level firmware development (C/C++) for microcontrollers.

• Understanding of RF fundamentals, signal processing, and antenna design.

• Proficiency in using oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and other test equipment.

• Knowledge of low-power electronics and thermal management techniques.

• English proficiency (B2 or higher) for writing technical reports and documentation.

Preferred skills

• Experience writing hardware abstraction layers (HAL) and board support packages (BSPs).

• Knowledge of power-efficient firmware design (e.g., sleep modes, dynamic system priority).

• Experience with STM32, LoRaWAN, GNSS, and power harvesting.

• Understanding of electronics manufacturing processes (cost, reliability, lead time optimization).

• Experience with environmental testing for aerospace or outdoor applications.

• Previous work on academic or commercial projects involving embedded hardware.

About the team

From building a crisis response website for a government to winning a U.S. Navy challenge and launching a global innovation platform - we’ve tackled big problems others overlooked or hesitated to solve.

We’re a hands-on team that values results over titles. If you care about real impact you’ll fit right in. Let’s build something meaningful together.