Permanent Archives | Page 2 of 14

Electronic Test Engineer

Electronics Test Engineer

Yapton, West Sussex

Salary up to £50,000 per annual

The Role

Our client is an established and well-regarded manufacturer of electric drive systems and motor control solutions, serving industrial customers across the globe. Operating from their purpose-built UK manufacturing facility, they design and produce a comprehensive range of AC and DC motor control products across single-phase and three-phase applications, with power ratings reaching up to 1 megawatt. The business has been successfully developing innovative electromechanical solutions since the late 1980s and works with a broad network of distributors and systems integrators worldwide.

This is a permanent, full-time position based on-site at our client’s manufacturing facility in the South of England. The Test Engineer role is somewhat unusual in that it encompasses two quite distinct but equally important functions, both of which require genuine technical competence and attention to detail.

The first function relates to the technical development and validation of new products and product improvements during the design and prototype phases. During this stage, you will work closely with the electronics and firmware engineering teams to carry out what we might call development testing. This involves setting up and executing rigorous test protocols that allow the design team to verify that their circuits are performing as intended, to identify any issues that might emerge during integration of multiple boards and subsystems, to diagnose anomalies when they arise, and ultimately to support the engineers in iterating and refining the product design for performance and reliability. You will be hands-on, building test jigs and bespoke instrumentation where necessary, working with oscilloscopes and similar analytical equipment to understand what is happening at the component and board level, and feeding back clear technical observations that help the development team solve problems and optimise their designs.

The second function is rather more formal and procedurally structured, and relates to compliance and conformance testing. Once a product design has been finalised and is ready for market release, there are prescribed testing regimes that must be completed to satisfy various regulatory requirements and standards. These include testing to the Low Voltage Directive, EMC regulations, and UL/CSA compliance standards depending on the intended markets. This testing is more formalised, with defined test specifications, acceptance criteria, and detailed documentation requirements. You will be responsible for ensuring that products meet all applicable standards before they can be sold, and that the appropriate compliance records and certifications are in place.

The role requires someone who can move comfortably between these two different modes of working. The development testing demands creativity, problem-solving ability, and a collaborative approach. The compliance testing demands precision, methodical attention to procedure, and the ability to produce clear, accurate documentation.

Key Responsibilities

Plan, design and execute rigorous test protocols across the full range of operating conditions, including various load conditions, speed profiles and supply voltage scenarios
Design and commission test rigs, build custom instrumentation and automation solutions, and ensure all test equipment is properly calibrated
Carry out development phase testing on prototype boards and integrated systems, identify performance issues and anomalies, and work collaboratively with the design engineers to diagnose and resolve problems
Perform formal compliance and conformance testing against relevant standards including CE, UL/CSA and EMC requirements
Maintain day-to-day scheduling and prioritisation of test activities, managing the testing pipeline to support product timelines
Operate and troubleshoot a range of laboratory equipment including oscilloscopes, power analysers, load banks, programmable power supplies and similar analytical tools
Work safely and competently with three-phase electrical systems and high-power test equipment
Write clear, well-structured test procedures, test reports, and technical documentation that communicates findings to both engineering and commercial colleagues
Liaise across functions with Power Electronics engineers, Motor Control engineers, firmware teams and the manufacturing function
Contribute ideas for continuous improvement in test methodology, test cell capability and overall testing processes as the product range develops and grows

Experience and Skills Required

Proven hands-on experience testing motor drives, power electronics, AC-DC converters or similarly complex electromechanical systems in an R&D or manufacturing environment
Genuine competence with electrical test equipment including oscilloscopes, power analysers, load banks and programmable power supplies
Practical experience commissioning and calibrating test rigs, working safely with three-phase electrical power
Ability to write clear, logical test procedures and to produce detailed technical reports
Comfortable working across the electronics and firmware boundary, able to diagnose issues that involve both hardware and software
Strong communication skills and genuine ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams
Good organisational skills and ability to manage multiple testing priorities
Formal qualification in electrical engineering, electronic engineering or a closely related discipline (HNC, HND, BSc, BEng or MEng preferred)

Desirable

Specific experience with electric motor drive systems, particularly inverters or DC drives
Familiarity with compliance testing protocols and the standards landscape (CE, UL/CSA, EMC)
Experience designing or specifying bespoke test rigs, jigs or test automation solutions
Knowledge of product development cycles and design validation methodologies

Location and Package

Location: Yapton, West Sussex, on-site (this is a full-time, on-site role)

Salary: Up to £50,000 per annum, depending on experience and background

How to Apply

Please send your CV along with a covering note that tells us a bit about your most relevant testing experience, particularly any work you have done on power electronics or motor drive products. If you have a portfolio of test procedures, reports or technical documentation, feel free to reference that.

Senior Electronic Engineer

Senior Electronics Hardware Engineer
Torrington, North Devon | Hybrid: 3 days on site, 2 working from home

£55,000 to £65,000

There’s a particular sort of engineer we are after with this one, and if you’re the type who gets genuine satisfaction watching a schematic become a working board, and that board become a product trusted to keep a helicopter rotor balanced or an industrial turbine running true, then read on.

We are recruiting on behalf of a client of KO2’s, a genuinely international name in condition monitoring technology, with a growing team spread across sites in the UK and further afield in mainland Europe and the United States. Their work covers rotor track and balance for helicopters, condition monitoring for critical rotating industrial machinery, and precision accelerometers used in applications where failure is simply not an acceptable outcome. This isn’t a business dabbling at the fringes of aerospace and defence electronics, it’s one that’s built a proper reputation doing it properly, and doing it from a Torrington site that happens to sit within easy reach of some of North Devon’s finest coastline.

They now need a Senior Electronics Hardware Engineer to take genuine technical ownership of products from concept through to full production. You’ll be leading design work across analogue, digital, mixed signal and power electronics, getting properly hands on with schematic capture, PCB layout and technical documentation, and supporting the certification effort that comes with CE, UKCA, FCC and the relevant aerospace and defence standards. Alongside that there’s mentoring of junior engineers, involvement in value engineering to keep designs cost effective and manufacturable, and direct customer engagement where you’ll be trusted as a proper technical voice rather than someone wheeled out only when things go wrong.

On the practical side, our client is offering a salary of £55,000 to £65,000 depending on what you bring to the table, which for this part of Devon is a proper number and reflects the seniority they’re looking for.

Working pattern is hybrid, three days on site in Torrington and two from wherever suits you, and the flexi time arrangement on offer is genuinely more generous than most I come across. Core hours run 10am until 3pm, Monday to Thursday, with the ability to flex your Friday entirely, and beyond that hours can be balanced across the whole month rather than pinned to a rigid weekly total, so provided your hours are completed by month end there’s real room to manage your own week.

On top of that there’s 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, a pension, company sick pay, an Employee Assistance Programme, training and development that’s properly resourced rather than paid lip service, and, for those days when a bit of downtime between design reviews wouldn’t go amiss, an office fitted out with its own games room.

If you’re degree qualified in electronic engineering, or can show the equivalent through hard won industry experience in manufacturing, industrial, aerospace or defence environments, and this reads like a role with the technical depth and commercial relevance you’ve been after, I’d be glad to hear from you.

Get in touch with Laurence Powell or Andrew Knight at KO2 Embedded Recruitment today to apply!

Electronic Engineer

September 14, 2026/in North West Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Electronics Engineer

Dukinfield, Manchester

£45,000 to £50,000 | 3 days on site, 2 days remote | Research & Development

KO2s client are an internal start-up division of an exceptionally well-established and financially robust manufacturing organisation, one that has consistently demonstrated strong profitability and substantial reserves. Their mission is delivering a genuinely innovative commercial electronics solution designed specifically for the burgeoning home electronics market. What makes this particularly compelling is their capacity to dramatically reduce both the development lead time and time-to-market for businesses producing consumer electronics devices.

The Role

As Electronics Engineer, you’ll be fundamentally responsible for designing and developing cutting-edge integrated electronics solutions that will be integrated into our product offerings as part of a collaborative project team. You’ll be involved throughout the entire product lifecycle, from initial research and feasibility investigations right through to preparing designs for manufacture. This isn’t merely about pushing buttons and looking busy; it demands genuine technical competency.

What You’ll Do

You’ll take ownership of analogue and digital electronics design work, investigate emerging electronics technologies, and participate in feasibility studies focused on novel product realisation. You’ll produce thoroughly documented designs, liaise with other departments to optimise manufacturability, and ensure adherence to relevant standards and legislation including ISO 9001. Crucially, you’ll support designs through their full product lifecycle and manage the broader electronics design activities including PCB layout, prototyping, testing and stakeholder management.

What We’re Looking For

You’ll possess a degree-level qualification in Electronics Engineering or equivalent, with at least five years’ experience in genuine electronics design roles. We absolutely require strong capabilities in both analogue and digital electronics, with solid experience using Altium Designer. You must be comfortable with PCB layout, embedded software development, and C/C++ programming. Knowledge of ARM Cortex-M microprocessors, serial communication interfaces, and EMC compliance is essential. Design for manufacture and low-power battery product experience is highly desirable.

You’re analytically sharp, exceptionally organised, and capable of managing your own time effectively within project parameters. You communicate brilliantly with both technical and non-technical colleagues, work collaboratively, and take genuine responsibility for your work. Attention to detail isn’t negotiable.

The Package

We offer genuine flexibility around personal circumstances such as childcare responsibilities, with flexibility to make up hours. You’ll be joining a team that values competence, technical excellence, and pragmatic problem-solving.

Interested? Get in touch.

Senior Software Architect

September 9, 2026/in South Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Senior Software Architect
Location: Royston, Hybrid Working from Home Available

Salary: Up to £90,000

KO2 is working with a well-established manufacturer of advanced, ruggedised electronic hardware, precision equipment built to perform reliably in demanding real-world conditions. A considerable body of software sits behind each product, running across multiple processing units, and the business is now seeking a Senior Software Architect to take ownership of the software vision and steer it forward.

This is a role of genuine scope, and it is worth being clear about what it is not. It is not an architect position where a set of requirements is handed over and the task is simply to work out how to deliver them. The business is looking for the person who defines how the entire software platform ought to look, across every component and including the data management strategy. You would be the technical figurehead the software team looks to, the person who sets the direction and brings colleagues with them.

The remit

The business runs two mature software platforms that developed separately, in different countries, performing much the same function but built in very different ways with very different front ends. The first task is to understand both in real depth: how they are constructed, why, and where the strengths and the liabilities lie. From there, you would decide the way forward. That may mean retaining what works and extending it, or it may mean concluding that a platform has reached the end of its useful life and defining a new one. That judgement, and the ability to argue it convincingly, sits at the heart of the role.

Alongside this you would:

Work closely with product management, together with the hardware and technology leads, to define the software portion of the roadmap and the shape of the platform’s future
Take on line management of the software team, and in time responsibility for software colleagues based in another country
Partner with a technical lead elsewhere to determine, on a global basis, what gets built and how
Engage directly with customers where appropriate, since a good deal of what shapes the software returns through the organisation from those using the product
Balance how much is exposed to the customer against how much is automated beneath the surface, so that the end user is well served with a product that is straightforward to use

The technical picture

The core of this role is C++ and C#. This is application software that controls a device, running on Windows, rather than embedded firmware development. One platform is built largely in C# with an amount of wrapped C carried over from earlier work. The other is predominantly C, with Qt and QML providing the interface layer. You would not be expected to have worked in all of these, and you would not be writing production code day to day. What is essential is a background that began in software engineering proper, writing code and progressing from there, because holding a software team to account and challenging how work has been approached is only credible from someone who has done the work themselves.

A working knowledge of industrial protocols such as OPC and the common field buses would be an advantage. With the European Cyber Resilience Act approaching, an architect who writes and thinks about code with security considered from the outset, rather than addressed after the fact, would be particularly valued.

The person

Technically excellent above all, with the standing to command the respect of an accomplished engineering team. Someone equally comfortable operating at senior level within the organisation and working alongside the development team. A capable communicator, able to take a customer requirement and translate it into something the software team can build, with a clear sense of what matters and what does not.

The international dimension is a significant part of the role. The business operates across the UK, Germany and beyond, so experience of working with teams in more than one country, and an understanding that working styles differ from place to place, would be a distinct advantage.

Finally, the business places real value on engineers who have seen a product through its full life cycle, from introduction through maturity to eventual retirement, and drawn the lessons from it. A history of frequent short tenures is unlikely to suit, as much of what makes this role effective is an appreciation of the long term consequences of the decisions taken.

The essentials

Salary up to £90,000 + Bonus
On site in Royston, Cambridge, three days per week. This is a collaborative role, and a fully remote arrangement is not available
Permanent, and intended as a long term appointment

To apply, please send your CV in confidence. You would be given the full details of the role, and would always know precisely which client you were being represented to before any application proceeded.

Andrew Knight, Director, KO2 Embedded Recruitment Solutions

Technical Product Development Manager

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

Role: Technical Product Development Manager – Consumer Electronic Products

Location: Hemel Hempstead – this is an office-based role.

Salary: Up to £55,000 + Benefits

KO2’s client is seeking a technically strong Technical Product Development Manager to take ownership of the technical direction and evolution of a range of commercial electronic products.

This role sits between engineering, product development, and supplier collaboration. You will act as the internal technical authority when working with external manufacturing partners, reviewing designs, challenging engineering decisions, and ensuring products deliver industry-leading performance.

This position is ideal for someone who understands electronics and hardware development, but is equally motivated by product innovation, research, competitor analysis, and translating technology into successful consumer products.

Some travel will be required to partners in China, our client need someone who is genuinely hands on in product development, ideally with a strong electronics / hardware background and good experience developing physical consumer Products with Chinese factories.

You will need to be able to work directly with factory engineers, challenge technical solutions, review samples, solve problems and help get Products properly across the line into production. The role will cover both developing new Products and improving / problem solving their existing product range

Key Responsibilities

Own the technical product roadmap
Review and challenge supplier electronic designs, schematics, and system architectures
Validate new product ideas through technical research, engineering analysis, and testing
Work closely with suppliers to push technical performance and innovation
Drive continuous improvement of existing products through component optimisation and design changes
Translate scientific research, technical papers, and patents into engineering targets and product improvements
Analyse customer feedback and reviews to identify product improvement opportunities
Define product specifications and technical requirements for suppliers
Support marketing teams by translating technical capabilities into clear consumer benefits

Experience & Skills

Background in electronics, hardware engineering, or technical product development
Ability to understand and challenge engineering decisions
Strong analytical mindset and curiosity for how technology works
Experience working with manufacturing partners or hardware suppliers
Ability to translate technical research into product direction
Strong experience developing Products with Chinese OEM / ODM manufacturers and working directly with factory engineers.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working between engineering and product leadership. You should feel comfortable discussing technical challenges with engineers while also considering how products succeed in the consumer market.

The role requires curiosity, experimentation, and continuous improvement, with a focus on analysing technology, challenging assumptions, and working with suppliers to achieve better outcomes.

Apply today with an up-to-date CV for immediate consideration.

Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

September 4, 2026/in Midlands, Scotland Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
Location: Newmarket
Salary: Up to £65,000 DOE

About the Role

KO2’s client is seeking an exceptionally talented Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to join their elite engineering team in Newmarket. This is genuinely a rare opportunity to work on some of the most exciting and challenging mechanical engineering projects you’ll encounter in your career. You’ll find yourself at the forefront of designing and engineering novel automotive robot systems that are quite literally breaking boundaries in the safety arena.

The role will see you working directly alongside one of the most experienced mechanical engineers on the market, who will serve as an exceptional mentor. This is the kind of technical leadership and guidance that money quite frankly cannot buy, and it’s the sort of opportunity that will genuinely accelerate your professional development in ways that most engineers only dream about.

What You’ll Be Doing

You’ll be responsible for leading the mechanical design function from initial concept right through to successful manufacture. This is not a narrow, specialist role; rather, you’ll be involved in the complete engineering lifecycle. Your primary focus will be to create detailed 3D CAD models using SolidWorks, generating comprehensive technical drawings and system architectures that are both robust and thoroughly thought through. You’ll be running sophisticated structural analysis and finite element analysis (FEA) to understand precisely how systems will perform under real world stresses, vibrations and environmental conditions.

Critically important to this role is your understanding of fabrication, steel construction, welding techniques and bolting strategies. The engineering here is substantial, chunky mechanical engineering, not the sort of lightweight polymeric work you might find elsewhere. You’ll be selecting appropriate materials, evaluating manufacturing methods, and essentially ensuring that everything you design is not just technically sound but genuinely manufacturable by the teams on the shop floor.

There’s also significant work to be done in terms of rework and redesign on the existing platform. We’re looking to take several hundred hours out of the build process through intelligent engineering, which means improving efficiency, reducing production costs, and resolving manufacturing constraints. You’ll be implementing change management protocols, issuing service bulletins, creating and maintaining comprehensive technical manuals, and ensuring absolutely everything meets the rigorous NATO compliance standards required for the end customer.

What We’re Looking For

You’ll have demonstrated, proven experience as a senior mechanical design engineer, with genuine competency in creating robust designs from initial concept through to successful manufacture. Your CAD skills will be exceptionally strong, particularly with SolidWorks, and you’ll have a meticulous understanding of how to create assemblies, components and detailed manufacturing drawings that actually make sense on the shop floor.

You’ll be comfortable applying engineering principles, undertaking calculations, specifying appropriate tolerances, and using FEA to validate your designs. Most importantly, you’ll have genuine understanding of manufacturing processes. You won’t just design in isolation; you’ll understand how things are actually made, cut, welded, and finished. You’ll be knowledgeable about metals and materials selection, and you’ll be able to confidently discuss fabrication, machining, welding, and finishing techniques.

You need to be someone who approaches design challenges pragmatically, who evaluates problems logically and makes evidence based technical decisions. You should be the sort of engineer who takes genuine ownership of accuracy and engineering excellence.

You need to communicate complex engineering information clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. You should be someone who works effectively with colleagues and manufacturing teams. You’ll need to be proactive, capable of working with appropriate autonomy and without requiring constant hand-holding. You’ll demonstrate sound engineering judgement and professional credibility. We’re looking for someone who is confident to make sound technical decisions and take ownership of outcomes.

Why Join

This is quite genuinely a unique opportunity. The products being developed here are genuinely innovative and internationally significant. The engineering challenges are substantial and genuinely interesting. Your work will quite literally make a difference in the real world, deployed across numerous countries globally. If you’re the sort of engineer who wants to do genuinely meaningful work on genuinely interesting problems, with genuinely good people, then this could be absolutely perfect for you.

Apply Today

If this role appeals to you and you believe you’ve got the technical capability and the right attitude to succeed in this environment, we’d very much like to hear from you. Please send your CV through to KO2 and we can have a proper discussion about whether this opportunity is genuinely right for you.

Test Technician – Medical & Drug Delivery Devices

August 26, 2026/in South Permanent /by Chris Oddy

£25,000 – £30,000 | Cambridgeshire | Full-Time, Permanent | On-Site

Are you looking to start or build your career in medical device testing? Join a leading medical device design and development company as a Test Technician within their Device Testing team, working on a genuinely fascinating range of medical and drug delivery devices. From injectable and inhalation devices through to robotics and surgical instruments.

This is a fantastic entry point into the industry, with a clearly defined route for career progression as you gain experience.

What You’ll Be Doing

Supporting hands-on testing across a variety of projects, from early-stage R&D through to formal design verification and post-market investigations
Carrying out mechanical and functional testing – think force testing, weighing, measuring physical dimensions, and detailed visual inspections
Running environmental stress conditioning and working with bespoke test rigs
Following test methods, protocols and quality documentation (SOPs, WIs) to a consistently high standard
Generating and recording accurate test data
Occasionally supporting electronic test and build work

You’ll work closely within a multi-disciplinary project team, under supervision as you learn the ropes.

What We’re Looking For

Previous experience conducting laboratory testing (this doesn’t need to be in medical devices – general lab experience from university or another industry is fine)
A good understanding of health and safety practices in a lab environment
Experience creating test data and writing up results
A relevant degree or equivalent practical/vocational experience (BTEC-level lab work also considered)
Basic Excel skills

You’re likely to be either fresh out of university or have up to around two years’ experience. What matters most is your personality: you’re conscientious, keen to learn, not afraid to ask for help, and able to stay calm and focused under pressure. Any customer-facing or client-service experience (even from part-time work) is a real bonus.

Career Progression

This role offers a genuinely structured path forward:

Test Technician (this role) – supervised for your first 6 months while you build core skills and pass probation
Test Scientist – working independently on specific tasks
Analytical Scientist – recognised as a subject matter expert, responsible for method validation

Graduates with a relevant master’s degree can typically expect to progress through to Analytical Scientist within around two years.

Location & Commute

This is a full time, on-site, laboratory based role in Cambridgeshire. It’s well suited to those driving in, and there are also good cycle routes for anyone commuting from the Cambridge direction or from local villages – with bike storage, showers and towels provided on site for cyclists.

The Package

Salary: £25,000 – £30,000, depending on experience
Full time, permanent position
Structured career development pathway
Work on genuinely varied, high-impact medical technology

Apply now with your CV, or get in touch to find out more about this opportunity.

Electronic Engineer

August 20, 2026/in Midlands Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Job Title: Electronics Engineer

Location: Rugby

Salary: £48,000 – £58,000 + Benefits (including 5% annual bonus)

KO2’s client is looking for an experienced Electronics Engineer to join their product development team in Rugby. This is a hands-on role covering the full product lifecycle — from schematic design and component selection through to PCB layout, firmware development, prototype testing, and production support.

You’ll be working on innovative electronic solutions from concept through to production, combining strong analogue/digital hardware design skills with embedded C/C++ firmware development. This is a great opportunity for an engineer who enjoys ownership of a project end-to-end, working closely with suppliers, the wider development team, and production.

What you’ll be doing:

Designing innovative electronic solutions, including full lifecycle work from schematic and component selection through to PCB layout and prototype testing, in line with design specifications
Developing embedded C/C++ firmware for PIC, NXP or similar microcontrollers, including examining and understanding existing deployed firmware to provide bug fixes with minimal risk
Documenting technical solutions and processes, including capturing requirements for new product developments and generating in-depth specifications from minimal source material
Managing BOM data for new and existing products within the ERP system
Proving functional design across both firmware and hardware, including designing and implementing production testing solutions (production tester firmware/software and hardware rigs)
Contributing to Safety/EMC compliance activities as part of product testing and certification
Coordinating with the development team and liaising with suppliers to transfer solutions into production

What they’re looking for:

Degree in Electronics Engineering or equivalent
Several years’ experience in a similar electronics engineer role
Analog and digital circuit design
Schematic capture and PCB Layout
Embedded Coding in C
Microchip PIC, NXP or similar Microcontroller development
Excellent communication skills
Good knowledge of regulatory compliance requirements

What’s on offer:

Salary of £48,000 – £58,000, depending on experience
5% annual bonus
Additional benefits package

If you’re an electronics engineer who enjoys working across the full product lifecycle — from concept and schematic design through to firmware and production — and you’re looking for a role where you can take real ownership of projects, this is well worth exploring.

Apply today with an up to date CV and a member of the KO2 team will be in touch to progress your application.

Software Infrastructure Engineer

August 6, 2026/in North West Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Software Infrastructure Engineer
Location: Manchester
Salary: Up to £70,000 DOE

KO2’s client is an international, cutting-edge software engineering consultancy. They provide innovative solutions to some of the world’s most challenging system engineering challenges, across a range of industry sectors including Automotive, IoT, Meditech, Finance and Industrial Automation. With their office based in Central Manchester, just a short walk from Manchester Piccadilly station they are easily commutable by public transport from large parts of the Northwest region.

They are looking for software infrastructure engineer whose focus will be designing and delivering the infrastructure that enables them to deliver their technology stacks to customers.

Your key responsibilities:

Support and enable the software engineering teams through delivery of scalable and distributed infrastructure able to be run in cloud and in on-prem contexts.
Provide input to and evaluation of infrastructure technology choices.
Be part of and/or support the infrastructure teams to deliver and operate solutions to customers in highly regulated environments.
Mentoring software infrastructure engineers and helping to curate internal training and development programmes.

We are looking for candidates with the following experience:

Strong Linux and Git skills
Proven production experience deploying and managing infrastructure on at least one major Cloud Service provider, using tooling such as Terraform.
Hands-on production experience developing, deploying, and operating Kubernetes clusters; experience running this on OpenStack is an advantage.
Confident provisioning and deploying to bare-metal instances using tooling such as Ansible.
Solid operational expertise in managing production environments, with knowledge of methodologies such as SRE considered a plus.
A genuine interest in, and ideally hands-on involvement with, FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) communities and/or projects.

Apply today for this exciting, new opportunity within Software Infrastructure.

Embedded Machine Learning Engineer

August 4, 2026/in Scotland Permanent /by Chris Oddy

Embedded Machine Learning and Real-Time Sensor Classification

Introduced by: KO2 Embedded Recruitment Solutions

Client Location: Edinburgh

Salary: £60,000 to £70,000 per annum

The Opportunity

Our client is building the next generation of real-time detection systems that operate at the edge of the network, where connectivity is unreliable and power is constrained. Their vision is straightforward and radical: machine learning models that run on embedded devices, processing sensor data in the field, making instant decisions without relying on cloud infrastructure or continuous data transmission.

This is not a supervised learning problem on tabular business data. This is not model serving from a GPU cluster. This is embedded machine learning in its most demanding form: taking sophisticated sensor-based classification systems and making them run reliably on devices with megabytes of RAM, in real-world environments where data is noisy, conditions are uncontrolled, and failure is not an option.

The client is at the frontier of what embedded ML can do. Most organisations are still building cloud-first systems. They are building ground-truth systems: devices that operate autonomously, make decisions in real time, and remain reliable under the constraints that define actual field deployment.

The Challenge

The engineering challenge is significant. You will be responsible for the complete lifecycle of machine learning models that run on embedded devices. This means:

From Sensor to Deployed Device. You will work with raw sensor data streams from physical devices operating in uncontrolled environments. This data is not clean. It carries noise, calibration drift, temperature sensitivity, and the unpredictable behaviour of systems deployed in the real world. Your job is to transform this stream into a robust, real-time classification model that runs on hardware with severe constraints on memory, computation, and power.

Engineering Under Constraint. Every machine learning decision you make has downstream consequences for embedded systems. A model that requires 512MB of RAM will not run on a device with 128MB. A model that takes 500ms per inference will drain the battery in days. A model that works in the lab but degrades in the field is a failure. You will learn to think like an embedded systems engineer, not a researcher. You will understand that the goal is not maximum accuracy; it is maximum accuracy within the hardware constraints that define your actual platform.

Real-World Iteration. You will take models from lab development through semi-field validation and into live deployment. You will see what happens when your model encounters conditions it has never seen before. You will debug why a model that performed flawlessly during development is behaving unexpectedly in the field. You will iterate based on real-world performance data and build the judgment to know when a model is sufficiently reliable for deployment.

Cross-Domain Transfer. The long-term vision is building a platform where machine learning models and data structures developed for one application can be adapted and transferred to others. You will contribute to demonstrating that this is technically possible; that you can take a model built for one classification task and, with appropriate retraining and adaptation, make it work reliably in a different domain. This is the frontier of applied ML.

The Role

Reporting to the Lead Data Scientist, you will own the development and deployment of machine learning models that sit at the heart of the embedded detection platform. You will work closely with R&D scientists, firmware engineers, hardware designers, and product teams. You will be the bridge between data science and embedded systems. You will own the complete pipeline: from sensor data ingestion and cleaning, through feature engineering and model development, through embedded optimisation and deployment, through field validation and iteration.

Key Responsibilities

Clean, structure, and analyse sensor datasets from real-world deployments for training and evaluation
Develop machine learning models optimised for embedded deployment on resource-constrained devices
Work with TensorFlow Lite, Edge Impulse, or custom firmware deployment strategies to integrate models into actual hardware platforms
Optimise model architecture, quantization, and inference speed to fit hardware constraints without unacceptable loss of accuracy
Collaborate with firmware engineers to integrate your models into live devices, understanding and accommodating their constraints
Test model performance across lab, semi-field, and real-world settings; identify failure modes and iterate
Document training pipelines, feature engineering methods, model validation results, and deployment learnings
Establish reproducible, scalable workflows for model development, retraining, and versioning
Support future platform expansion by demonstrating that models can be adapted across different applications and use cases
Develop model-driven features such as confidence scoring, anomaly detection, and on-device adaptation logic

Must-Haves

5+ years of applied experience in data science or machine learning engineering roles
Strong, demonstrable experience with machine learning for classification tasks
Proficiency in Python and relevant libraries: scikit-learn, TensorFlow, pandas, NumPy
Real-world experience working with sensor data, time-series data, or IoT data streams
Familiarity with embedded ML tools and approaches: TensorFlow Lite, Edge Impulse, ONNX Runtime, or equivalent
Hands-on mindset; comfortable getting close to hardware, firmware code, and the real-world constraints of device deployment
Clear communication; ability to explain model behaviour, limitations, and engineering trade-offs to non-technical collaborators

Nice-to-Haves

Signal processing experience or background in IoT systems
Previous work deploying models to edge devices or microcontrollers
Experience with model quantization, pruning, or other embedded optimisation techniques
Background in biology, chemistry, environmental science, or related domains
Familiarity with sensor calibration pipelines, metadata tagging, or HDF5
Experience with dataset versioning and ML workflow management: MLflow, DVC, Weights & Biases
Understanding of low-power device design and power budgeting

What Success Looks Like in Year One

Models in the Field, Not the Lab. You will have taken at least one machine learning model from initial development through to embedded deployment on a live device. You will have validated that model across lab conditions, semi-field conditions, and real-world deployment. You will have documented accuracy and reliability benchmarks that the R&D and product teams trust enough to build products around.

A Repeatable ML Pipeline. You will have established clean, documented workflows for model development, feature engineering, validation, and versioning. The process will no longer be ad hoc. When new sensor data arrives, when a new classification task emerges, or when an existing model needs retraining, the team will have a clear, reproducible path forward.

Embedded Constraints Are Second Nature. You will think routinely in terms of memory budgets, latency budgets, and power budgets. You will anticipate firmware engineer constraints before they surface as integration bottlenecks. You will make design decisions that balance model accuracy against hardware reality.

Real-World Reliability Mindset. You will understand that deployment is when learning truly begins. You will have built the infrastructure to monitor deployed models, identify when they degrade, understand why, and iterate. You will have learned the hard lessons about what separates a model that works in the lab from one that works reliably in the field.

Cross-Domain Credibility. You will have contributed technical evidence that machine learning systems can be developed for one application and transferred to others, with appropriate adaptation and retraining. You will understand what transfers and what does not.

Why This Matters

Your client is working at the frontier of applied embedded machine learning. Most ML work today is server-centric or cloud-centric. The real innovation now is in making sophisticated machine learning work reliably on devices with severe constraints, in real-world conditions, without cloud dependency.

This is where the intellectual frontier is. This is where the technical challenges are genuine. This is where you will learn, in depth and under pressure, what it actually takes to build ML systems that work.

Your models will power systems that operate in the real world, making real decisions, creating measurable impact. You are not building dashboards. You are not building systems that work in the lab. You are building systems that have to work when deployed in the field, under conditions you cannot control, with hardware you cannot upgrade.

Application

Please submit the following:

Your CV
A cover letter (required) explaining your experience with embedded ML and real-world sensor data, and why this particular challenge interests you
Answers to the following questions:

Can you commit to 3 days per week in Edinburgh?
Describe a time you deployed a machine learning model to an embedded or edge device. What were the hardware constraints, and how did you optimise the model to fit them?
Have you worked with real-world sensor or time-series data? Describe the challenges you encountered and how you addressed them.
What is your current notice period?
Tell us about a time you took a machine learning model or pipeline built for one application and adapted it to a different use case or domain. What was transferable? What had to be rebuilt?
What draws you to embedded machine learning specifically, rather than traditional cloud-based ML or data science?