Permanent Archives | KO2 Recruitment

Software Design Engineer

Software Design Engineer

Sheffield

Up to £55,000

The Role

Working closely with engineers, product managers, and stakeholders, you’ll help drive continuous improvement and innovation across KO2’s client’s product portfolio. This is a varied, hands-on role spanning the design, development, testing, and maintenance of software, ideal for a practical, curious engineer who enjoys solving real-world problems and adapting as requirements evolve.

Key Responsibilities

Designing, developing, and maintaining software for current and future products.
Working across the full stack, including backend development, frontend/UI design, and APIs and system integrations.
Contributing to automation, tooling, and cloud/infrastructure tasks.
Supporting embedded software and firmware development.
Collaborating with hardware teams on microcontrollers, device communication, and low-level systems.
Investigating and resolving bugs and performance issues.
Writing clean, maintainable, and well-documented code.
Contributing to technical decisions and continuous improvement initiatives.

About You

You’ll have strong analytical and problem-solving skills, be self-motivated, and comfortable working both independently and as part of a team. You’ll be confident working across different parts of complex systems and a strong communicator, with:

Strong programming fundamentals with experience in Python, C/C++ or JavaScript
Experience in embedded systems and firmware development.
Comfort working across both software and hardware environments.
Experience with modern web technologies and UI frameworks.
Knowledge of APIs, databases, and cloud platforms.
Familiarity with Git and collaborative development workflows.
A degree in Software Engineering, Electronic Engineering, or a related discipline.

If you’re a versatile Software Design Engineer who enjoys working across the full stack — from embedded firmware through to cloud and UI — and wants to be part of a collaborative, innovation-driven engineering team, we’d love to hear from you.

Contact KO2 Embedded Recruitment Solutions in confidence, specialists in electronics and embedded engineering.

Embedded Software Engineer

Embedded Software Engineer
Location: Near Bishop Auckland (Fully Onsite) — finish at 2.30pm on Fridays

Salary: Up to £55,000

The Opportunity

An established engineering business near Bishop Auckland is looking for an Embedded Software Engineer to join their growing engineering team. The wider team of 16 spans firmware, electronics, software and test disciplines. This is a genuinely multidisciplinary environment, giving engineers full input across the entire product lifecycle — from concept and design through to testing and production.

You’ll be working on handheld, battery-powered devices that connect via Bluetooth to a range of devices, contributing to products used in real-world, hands-on applications.

Key Responsibilities

Design and develop embedded firmware for handheld, battery-powered devices.
Work across both RTOS and bare-metal environments.
Develop and maintain communication interfaces including Bluetooth/BLE, USB, SPI, UART, GPIO, and ADC.
Collaborate closely with electronics and test engineers across the full product lifecycle — from concept through to production.
Contribute to the design, development, and integration of Bluetooth-connected products with mobile and Windows platforms.

Skills & Experience

Strong embedded programming skills in C (some C++ desirable).
Experience with RTOS and bare-metal firmware development.
Familiarity with ARM Cortex and NXP processors.
Practical experience with Bluetooth/BLE, USB, SPI, UART, GPIO, and ADC communication protocols.
Experience developing firmware for battery-powered or handheld devices is highly desirable.
Comfortable working as part of a multidisciplinary engineering team with full lifecycle involvement.

What’s on Offer?

Full involvement across the entire product lifecycle, working alongside firmware, electronics, and test specialists.
A collaborative, multidisciplinary engineering environment.
37.5-hour week with an early finish (2.30pm) on Fridays
Fully onsite role near Bishop Auckland.

If you’re an Embedded Software Engineer looking to work on innovative handheld, Bluetooth-connected devices within a supportive, multidisciplinary team, we’d love to hear from you.

Embedded Software Lead – Medical Devices

July 14, 2026/in South Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Embedded Software Lead – Medical Devices

Bristol

Up to £80,000 + Bonus, OTE £100,000

KO2’s client is an innovative and fast-growing medical technology business developing advanced devices in a regulated environment. They are looking for an Embedded Software Lead to own embedded software and systems at a discipline level, sitting alongside the mechanical lead within the R&D leadership team and reporting to the Head of R&D.

This is a genuine leadership position. You will set the embedded software strategy, own it, and drive it. It is not a compliance heavy role and it is not narrowly specialised. The team is small, so you will stay close to the code and the hardware while shaping direction across the whole product.

The Opportunity

You will act as the system level lead across embedded software and hardware, driving design, integration and verification of current products and the next generation. The role blends hands on engineering, technical leadership and cross functional influence, with real ownership of product direction and a clear seat at the table.

What you will be doing

Set and drive the embedded software and systems strategy for the business
Contribute to early stage innovation, exploring new technologies in embedded systems and connected medical devices
Develop proof of concepts and functional prototypes
Lead system design across software and hardware for new product development
Own design control, risk management and verification and validation for the software and hardware functions
Provide technical oversight, review the work of engineers and challenge solutions to protect quality
Identify risks and constraints early and shape product direction through informed engineering decisions
Investigate complex field issues, complaints and non conformances alongside the quality team
Drive improvements in performance, reliability and cost across the existing range
Support usability testing and concept validation

What KO2’s client is looking for

Degree in software engineering, computer science, electronics or electrical engineering, or a related field
Around ten years in embedded software development within a regulated environment, medical device experience preferred
Expert level embedded software development, ideally C or C plus plus
Experience on physical products, not purely cloud or desktop systems
Strong design control, version control, testing and documentation discipline
Experience across the full product lifecycle, from concept through to launch and improvement
Awareness of cybersecurity and patient safety principles
An appreciation of electronics and hardware integration, beneficial rather than essential
Familiarity with medical device standards and regulated pathways, for example ISO 13485, IEC 62304, ISO 14971, IEC 60601 and IEC 62366

Just as important as the person

This is the part that will decide who gets the job. The successful candidate will be self contained. They will take the biggest problem in front of them, work out what needs to happen, and go and do it, without being told what is needed, in what format, and by when. They will have the gravitas to hold their own alongside mechanical leadership and the drive to set direction rather than wait for it. Pragmatic, willing to work outside the core role when the team needs it, and comfortable in a fast changing environment.

This role will suit someone who

Wants to step up into, or continue in, a technical leadership role with real ownership
Enjoys tangible, real world medical products rather than abstract software
Prefers broad engineering ownership to being siloed
Has regulated experience but does not want a compliance heavy job

Salary and Benefits

£75,000 base salary
£20,000 to £25,000 on target bonus
Strong benefits package
A key leadership seat in a growing R&D team
The opportunity to work on medical technology with genuine real world impact

Apply Today

If you are an embedded software engineer ready to lead at a systems level, and you want the mandate to shape an embedded software strategy rather than execute someone else’s, this is a strong next step.

Contact Andrew Knight or Laurence Powell at KO2 Embedded Recruitment Solutions.

Product Compliance Engineer

July 10, 2026/in North West Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Product Compliance Engineer
Rochdale area | Hybrid WFH – 2 days from home a week

£50,000 to £60,000

How do you know the products you use are safe? In most cases, the answer is product compliance. In hazardous industries such as oil and gas, chemical and pharmaceutical, it is compliance engineers who make sure electronic equipment can operate in explosive atmospheres without becoming the ignition source. This role puts you at the centre of that work.

KO2’s client is a long-established, global manufacturer of electronic products used in hazardous area and process industry applications worldwide. Their UK R&D centre designs intrinsically safe equipment, devices that limit electrical energy entering Zone 0, 1 and 2 environments so that a fault can never release enough energy to cause an explosion.

The opportunity to step up

This is a succession role. The company’s current compliance engineer, a highly respected specialist, retires at the end of next year, and the business wants their successor in place well ahead of that. Depending on your start date, you could have a year or more working directly alongside them, learning the products, the standards landscape and the relationships with certifying bodies before taking full ownership of the role.

That makes this a genuine opportunity for someone to step up. You do not need to be the finished article. The client will consider engineers earlier in their compliance career, or engineers from design, test or EMC backgrounds who have worked with standards and want to specialise, provided you have a real aptitude for reading and interpreting them. You will not be isolated either. You will sit within the R&D team, work closely with a counterpart compliance engineer in Europe, and be part of an international network of standards experts across the wider group.

What you will be doing

Implementing and organising Ex approvals such as ATEX and IECEx, alongside electrical safety standards
Determining which standards and legal requirements apply to new and existing products
Reviewing electrical schematics and R&D designs against the relevant standards, and guiding design engineers on compliance from the start of a project
Producing critical safety documentation to certification standard
Reviewing existing products against current international approvals and initiating updates where needed
Selecting, managing and negotiating with external certifying bodies and inspection organisations, both in the UK and internationally

There is no customer site travel in this role. Beyond occasional short-term international trips, including standards expert meetings held every couple of years, you will be based at the R&D centre and at home.

What you will need

A degree in engineering, physics or another analytical subject
A sound grasp of electronics fundamentals, for example how transistors and Zener diodes behave in a circuit
Genuine interest in reading, interpreting and debating standards, this is the heart of the role
Strong attention to detail and a structured, well-documented way of working
The confidence to negotiate and hold your ground with certification bodies and senior engineers

Experience with ATEX, IECEx, LVD, EMC or UKCA is valuable but not essential. Attitude and aptitude matter more than a perfect CV match.

Why this role

Compliance sign-off carries real seniority here. Nothing ships without it, and the role is respected accordingly across R&D and the wider business. You will become the UK authority on hazardous area compliance for a profitable, stable, global manufacturer, with a long structured handover from the person who currently holds that position.

To apply or for a confidential conversation about the role, contact KO2 Embedded Recruitment Solutions.

Embedded Software Engineer

July 7, 2026/in South Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Embedded Software Engineer
Trowbridge, Wiltshire (Hybrid WFH)

Up to £56,000 DOE

Our client, a well-established name in the automotive sector, is looking for an experienced Embedded Software Engineer to join their growing engineering team. This is an excellent opportunity to work on cutting-edge embedded platforms within a business that offers genuine flexibility, technical challenge, and room to grow.

The Role

You’ll be involved in the design, development, and delivery of embedded software for automotive applications, working across the full development lifecycle from concept through to production. You’ll collaborate closely with hardware, systems, and test engineering teams to deliver robust, reliable embedded solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Design and develop embedded software using C/C++ for automotive platforms
Work with FreeRTOS to build and maintain real-time embedded applications
Develop and support embedded Linux-based systems
Debug and optimize firmware across the full development lifecycle
Collaborate with cross-functional teams including hardware, systems, and test engineering
Contribute to code reviews, design discussions, and continuous improvement of development practices

Key Skills & Experience

Strong proficiency in C/C++ for embedded systems development
Hands-on experience with FreeRTOS
Experience working with embedded Linux
Solid understanding of embedded systems development tools and methodologies
Automotive industry experience is highly desirable
Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team

Desirable Skills

Yocto Project experience
Docker / containerization experience

What’s on Offer

Salary up to £56,000, depending on experience
Hybrid working — flexibility to work from home
The opportunity to work on innovative automotive embedded technology
A collaborative, technically strong engineering environment

If you’re an embedded software engineer with automotive experience and are looking for your next challenge in a role that offers real flexibility, r we’d love to hear from you.

Embedded Software Delivery Lead

July 3, 2026/in Yorkshire and the Humber Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Embedded Software Delivery Lead

Location: Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire – Hybrid (2–3 days on site)

Salary: Up to £75,000

The Company

This is a fast-growing British technology manufacturer producing a range of connected smart home devices centred around a main communications hub that allows homeowners to monitor, control and optimise the devices in their home, from EV chargers and solar diverters through to home battery storage. The products talk to each other, to the cloud and to mobile apps, giving customers full visibility and control of how they generate, store and use energy. The company is well established, growing internationally, and the firmware development function sits at the heart of everything they build. This is a genuine product role inside an engineering-led business that still moves quickly.

The Role

The business has a Product Manager who owns the commercial roadmap , the market insight, competitive analysis and strategic priorities for each product line. What they need now is someone to take that roadmap and run with it on the firmware side: breaking it down into a prioritised backlog, writing user stories, managing sprint ceremonies and keeping a single shared firmware development team pointed in the right direction across all products simultaneously.

The firmware team has separate backlogs for storage products, chargers and in-life updates. You will own and manage all of them, working closely with the equivalent Product Owner on the mobile app side and the backend (AWS) team to identify and resolve cross-dependencies as features are developed. You will be the person who keeps the firmware delivery process moving, running the sprints, refining the backlog, writing the tickets and making sure the team always has clear, well-scoped work in front of them.

What You Will Be Doing

Owning and managing the firmware backlog across all product lines, storage, EV charging and in-life firmware updates.
Taking roadmap items from the Product Manager and translating them into clear, prioritised user stories and development tickets.
Running sprint ceremonies: planning, stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives with the firmware development team.
Aligning continuously with the Mobile App and Backend Product Owners to surface cross-team dependencies before they become blockers.
Reporting on sprint velocity and delivery progress to engineering leadership.
Working closely enough with firmware engineers to understand and challenge technical estimates, and to represent technical complexity credibly to stakeholders.
Being the connective tissue between what the business wants built and what the engineering team is building.

What We Are Looking For

The job title on the door is Product Owner and this is an Agile delivery role, but the context is a firmware engineering team building embedded software for connected hardware. The person who will thrive here is someone who either comes from an embedded or firmware engineering background and has moved into Agile product delivery, or has a strong Agile Product Owner track record on hardware and IoT products. The key requirement is that you can walk into a room of firmware engineers and be credible.

Essential:

Proven experience as a Product Owner or Scrum Master working within an Agile (Scrum or Kanban) software development team.
Confident writing user stories, managing backlogs and running sprint ceremonies using tools such as Jira.
Experience working on hardware, IoT or embedded software products ,you need to understand what firmware is and how it is developed.
Ability to manage dependencies across multiple product streams and align with parallel product teams.
Strong communication skills, equally comfortable presenting to senior stakeholders and discussing technical detail with engineers.

Desirable:

A background as a firmware or embedded software developer, someone who has made that transition into Agile delivery or product ownership.
Experience in smart home, energy management, EV, IoT or any connected device environment.
Familiarity with the relationship between firmware, cloud/AWS backend and mobile app delivery teams.

What You Will Get

£75,000 base salary.
Hybrid working,a mix of on-site in Cleethorpes and remote, with flexibility around the right candidate.
Free on-site EV charging.
Employee Assistance Programme including free 24/7 UK-based counselling and wellbeing support.
A role inside a product team that is genuinely shaping how smart home energy technology

works, at a company that is growing fast and building products people care about.

If you have owned a firmware or embedded software delivery backlog in an Agile environment and want to do it for a product that genuinely makes a difference to how people use energy at home, we would like to hear from you.

Product Cybersecurity & Firmware Engineer

July 3, 2026/in Midlands Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Product Cybersecurity & Firmware Engineer
Nottingham area (Hybrid WFH) | £60,000 – £70,000

KO2 is working with a well-established, global manufacturer of high-tech electronic products to appoint a Senior Product Cybersecurity & Firmware Engineer. This hands-on, senior role embeds cybersecurity and secure networking capability across a leading-edge product portfolio, sitting at the intersection of embedded engineering and product compliance.

The Role

You’ll lead cybersecurity assessment and remediation while directly contributing to the design, development, and validation of secure, network-connected product features — working closely with firmware, hardware, test, compliance, and quality teams to keep products ahead of evolving regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Lead cybersecurity assessments: identifying risks, vulnerabilities, and remediations
Design and implement secure, network-connected product functionality, including HTTPS/TLS and RFC-based networking
Write, review, and maintain production code for cybersecurity and network features
Support compliance with the Cyber Resilience Act, EN18031, and IEC 62443, including technical documentation
Investigate and resolve vulnerabilities; support patching and secure update strategies
(Desired) Provide technical leadership and best-practice guidance across engineering teams

What We’re Looking For

Essential:

5+ years’ embedded software/systems engineering, including production code delivery, in a relevant wireless or high-tech industry
Experience with network-connected products and protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP/S)
Hands-on secure communications/cybersecurity feature implementation
Embedded C or C++ 11/14
RTOS experience (ThreadX, Azure RTOS, or FreeRTOS)
Bare-metal development and low-level driver experience
Familiarity with cybersecurity standards/frameworks (e.g. IEC 62443)
Strong diagnostic, problem-solving, and communication skills

Desirable:

Awareness of the Cyber Resilience Act and connected-product regulations
Experience supporting compliance, certification, or customer cybersecurity requests
ARM Cortex-M / STM32 experience
Exposure to SPI, I2C, I2S, UART, DMA
Hardware test and debug experience

Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.

Package: £60,000–£70,000 DOE | 37.5 hrs/week | Hybrid | Well-resourced team delivering a genuinely leading-edge development programme.

Get in touch with KO2 today with an up to date CV for a confidential conversation.

Electronics Engineer – Work from Home

July 2, 2026/in Midlands Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Electronics Engineer | Birmingham
£48,000 – £60,000 | Home Based (Office Optional)

Our client is a Birmingham-based innovator whose novel sensing technologies convert real-world physical data into meaningful, actionable intelligence. Their work underpins strategic decision-making for some of the biggest companies in the world, giving them the hard evidence they need to move with confidence. This is a business built on precision engineering and rigorous data, not guesswork.

The Role

They are looking for an Electronics Engineer with embedded software capability to join their R&D team. You’ll work across circuit design, PCB layout, and firmware development, helping to build the next generation of sensing instrumentation from the ground up.

Work However Suits You Best

This is a genuinely flexible role. Home working is fully supported, and for most of the team it is essentially work from home, with the office there if and when you want it or need it. The only fixed requirement is a fortnightly R&D team meeting, usually a Friday morning, so you stay connected with the wider engineering group. Outside of that, how and where you work is largely up to you. Part-time applicants and flexible hours will also be considered.

What You’ll Be Doing

Collaborating on electrical circuit design and PCB layout, with an eye on minimising manufacturing variance downstream
Developing, debugging, and testing firmware for next-generation digital instrumentation
Diagnosing and resolving hardware and codebase issues, supporting the wider test engineering effort
Taking ownership of features and components within active project workstreams
Maintaining clear technical documentation and working within an agile, sprint-based environment

What We’re Looking For

A background in electronics engineering with genuine embedded software experience, comfortable working across both hardware and firmware
Confidence with PCB design and schematic capture tools such as Altium or KiCad
Solid understanding of circuit design, PCB layout, and digital signal processing (DSP)
Awareness of design for manufacture, including EMC, RoHS, and WEEE considerations
Firmware or systems programming experience, ideally C and/or Verilog
A methodical, detail-focused approach and the ability to manage your own workload independently

Good to Have

Experience designing to ATEX (IEC 60079-11) or environmental testing (IEC 60068-2) standards
PLC programming experience, particularly Siemens S7
Familiarity with STM32 or Zynq SoCs

If you want the autonomy of a home-based role without losing the option of office collaboration when it matters, this is worth a conversation.

Principal Electronics Engineer

June 29, 2026/in South Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Principal Electronics Engineer

Location: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Salary: Up to £70,000

The Opportunity

KO2’s client is a specialist engineering business operating in a highly regulated and technically demanding sector. They design, manufacture, and deliver electronic systems where performance and reliability are paramount, working on programmes that have genuine real-world impact. This is a rare opening for a Principal Electronics Engineer to join a small, expert team working on some of the most technically challenging and commercially significant projects in their field.

Why This Role Is Worth Your Attention

This is not a box-ticking electronics role. You will be working on complex, high-integrity systems that require serious analogue design capability and the confidence to take technical ownership from concept through to delivery. The team is experienced, the work is meaningful, and your contribution will be visible. Specifically, you will be involved in the design and development of electronic systems used in weapons interface applications for the UK defence sector, requiring SC security clearance. Few roles offer this level of technical depth alongside the chance to act as a genuine authority within the engineering function.

The working week is 4.5 days (Friday afternoon off), with an initial site-based period that reduces over time as trust is established. The role is based at the client’s Loudwater facility, which is conveniently commutable from High Wycombe and the surrounding area.

Key Responsibilities

Leading the design and development of complex electronic systems from concept through to production and in-service support
Acting as technical authority for electronics across multiple concurrent programmes
Defining system and subsystem requirements to meet customer, regulatory, and operational needs
Providing expert guidance on analogue and mixed-signal electronic design, architecture, and component selection
Conducting circuit analysis, simulation, and formal design reviews
Overseeing schematic capture and guiding PCB layout activities
Supporting verification, integration, qualification, and production phases
Mentoring and developing engineers within the team
Representing the business in technical reviews and customer meetings

What We Are Looking For

Essential:

HNC, HND, degree or equivalent qualification in Electrical or Electronic Engineering
Significant experience designing electronic systems in high-reliability or regulated industries
Strong analogue electronics design and circuit simulation expertise
Experience with communication protocols such as RS485, SPI, I2C, CAN or similar
Solid understanding of component selection, derating, reliability, and lifecycle considerations
Ability to produce and review schematics and technical documentation to a high standard
Understanding of PCB design principles, layout supervision, and design-for-manufacture
Self-motivated and confident leading technical delivery in a fast-paced environment

Desirable:

Experience with EMC design
Digital circuit design background
Wiring definition experience
Familiarity with Altium Design
Prior experience in defence or aerospace

Security Requirements

Due to the nature of the programmes involved, candidates must be British nationals and eligible for SC security clearance. Candidates who are dual nationals may be considered in certain circumstances, but this will require discussion at interview stage. A clean criminal record is required. BPSS screening will be conducted at the point of offer.

Salary and Package

Up to £70,000 basic salary, plus pension, life insurance, and a competitive wider benefits package. Full details will be provided at the appropriate stage.

To apply or find out more, please contact the KO2 team in confidence.

Mechanical Design Engineer

June 22, 2026/in Yorkshire and the Humber Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Mechanical Design Engineer
Location: Halifax, West Yorkshire

Salary: Up to £35,000

We’re looking for a hands-on, curious mechanical engineer to join our clients growing team in Halifax. You’ll contribute across the full product lifecycle — from concept through to production — working on precision equipment and complex mechanical systems.

As a Mechanical Design Engineer, you’ll design and develop mechanical components and assemblies, produce high-quality CAD models, engineering drawings, and Bills of Materials, and collaborate closely with manufacturing teams to bring practical, efficient designs to life. Working alongside senior engineers, you’ll contribute across every stage: concept, prototyping, validation, and production release.

What you’ll be doing

Design and develop mechanical components and assemblies for precision equipment, including complex multi-part systems with moving assemblies
Produce CAD models, engineering drawings, and Bills of Materials (BOMs)
Carry out engineering analysis — hand calculations and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) — to validate designs
Support testing and validation activities to ensure product performance and reliability
Apply Design for Manufacture (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) principles
Support build, assembly, and troubleshooting during prototype and production phases
Participate in design reviews and implement feedback effectively
Identify opportunities to simplify designs, reduce part count, and improve build efficiency
Explore and contribute ideas around new materials, processes, and emerging technologies

Ideal Skills and Experience

HNC/HND or Degree in Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
Experience designing complex mechanical systems with moving parts and interacting assemblies
Experience with 3D design packages – Autodesk Inventor or Autodesk Vault desired
Experience supporting or delivering products from concept through to production, including prototyping and validation
Competence in engineering analysis, including hand calculations and FEA
Strong understanding of traditional manufacturing processes — CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, and assembly methods
Proven application of DFM and DFA principles
Interest in emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing, advanced materials, and AI-assisted design tools

Based in Halifax, West Yorkshire. To apply, please submit your CV and a brief covering note.