PCB & Electronics Designer

Job summary

Lead the full PCB lifecycle from concept and schematic capture to layout, fabrication, and production. Collaborate with mechanical and firmware teams to integrate boards into full mechatronic systems while managing client relationships.

Job details

Job description We're looking for a PCB & Electronics Designer to join our technical team in Kitchener. This is a hands-on role taking circuit boards from concept to production: capturing schematics, laying out boards, bringing them up at the bench, and seeing them through manufacturing. Waterloo Technical is a product design and engineering consultancy that's been bringing hardware products to life for over 14 years. Our team of ~20 works out of two facilities in downtown Kitchener, serving clients across IoT, industrial electronics, environmental monitoring, HVAC controls, and agricultural technology. The products we build are full mechatronic systems: enclosures, mechanisms, sensors, boards, and firmware, designed together under one roof. You won't work on one product for years. You'll work on several at once, each at a different stage, each with a client waiting on the result. What You'll Do Design boards for connected products: MCU-based designs with sensors, wireless connectivity (BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, cellular), power supplies, battery charging and management, and the connectors and interfaces that tie them into the rest of the product Own the full board cycle: part selection, schematic capture, layout, fabrication and assembly files, and revision control Bring up your own boards at the bench: power-on, measure, debug, and iterate alongside our firmware and prototyping teams Design for the whole product, not just the board: work with our mechanical and industrial design teams on board outlines, connector placement, thermal paths, and enclosure fit Design for manufacturing: choose parts with real supply chains, work with our production team on assembly and test, and support the ramp from first prototype to volume Join client calls, explain design decisions in plain language, and help clients weigh trade-offs on cost, size, power, and schedule Help decide where problems get solved. When something surfaces in design, manufacturing, or the field, the fix might be a board change, or it might be firmware, a mechanical tweak, or a process adjustment. You'll be part of figuring out which What We're Looking For 3-7 years of experience designing boards that made it into production Solid schematic and layout skills in a modern ECAD tool (Altium, KiCad, or similar), including multilayer boards with mixed signals, switching power supplies, and RF modules Comfortable at the bench: you can bring up your own design with a scope, DMM, and logic analyzer, and figure out why it isn't doing what you expected Practical about manufacturing: you think about part availability, cost, assembly, and test before the board is released, not after A systems thinker: you see the board as one part of a product that also has firmware, mechanics, a manufacturing process, and a user, and you're curious about all of it Organized and self-directed: you can own a project's electrical track, not just tickets handed to you A clear communicator who can talk to clients, not just CAD Degree or diploma in Electrical/Electronics Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience Nice to Have Experience with battery-powered and low-power designs Experience with EMC/EMI, regulatory testing (FCC, CE, UL), and designing to pass the first time Familiarity with firmware: enough to read code, flash a board, and debug at the hardware/firmware boundary Exposure to production test fixture design Experience in a consultancy or client-facing engineering role You've designed and built your own boards just because you wanted them to exist Why This Role You'll get breadth that a single-product company can't offer: different industries, different architectures, different constraints, all inside one job. You'll work directly with our senior technical team, with a clear path toward owning larger projects and client relationships as you grow. We're a small team, so your decisions actually reach the product. This role is based in Kitchener and is primarily on-site: the bench work and cross-team collaboration are the point. Some flexibility for hybrid work once you're established. We offer competitive compensation, health benefits, and profit sharing. If you want to design boards that ship inside real products, and you'd rather understand the whole machine than just your corner of the schematic, we'd love to hear from you!

What you’ll do

Lead the full PCB lifecycle from concept and schematic capture to layout, fabrication, and production. Collaborate with mechanical and firmware teams to integrate boards into full mechatronic systems while managing client relationships.

Requirements

Requires 3-7 years of experience in production-level board design and proficiency with modern ECAD tools like Altium or KiCad. A degree or diploma in Electrical Engineering or equivalent hands-on experience is required.

Benefits

• Health Benefits
• Profit Sharing

Listed skills

• PCB Design · Preferred

Other relevant skills

Identified from the job description. Confirm important requirements above.

• PCB Design
• Schematic Capture
• PCB Layout
• Altium
• KiCad
• MCU-based Design
• Wireless Connectivity
• Power Supply Design
• Hardware Debugging
• Design for Manufacturing
• Mixed Signal Design
• RF Modules
• EMI/EMC Design
• Battery Management
• Client Communication
• Prototyping

Job areas

• Engineering
• Consulting
• Manufacturing
• Technology
• Art & Design

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