Senior Electrical Engineer

Founded in 1918, Kearfott Corporation, a global Aerospace and Defense supplier for over 100 years, is a leader in the design and manufacture of precision motion control products and inertial navigation components.  Kearfott has a very long history of innovation and excellence and is the go-to brand for many of our global clients. Kearfott is trusted, respected and plays a vital role in the success of America’s aerospace and defense industries. With over a century of expertise & experience, Kearfott is dedicated to providing quality, reliability, and cutting-edge technology to customers worldwide to meet their sea, land, air, and space navigation and guidance requirements.

Kearfott offers a comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, sick leave pay, vacation pay, 401K, and Tuition Reimbursement.   We also offer a 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off.

We are looking for talented individuals who want to be part of a world-class work force. Join Kearfott and become part of a company that is recognized for technical expertise and respected world-wide as a ‘full service’ provider.

For more information visit our website at www.kearfott.com

Position Overview

Kearfott is seeking an experienced Senior Electrical Engineer to lead the electronics design and development of complex electromechanical products and systems used in demanding aerospace, defense, and unmanned applications. This is a hands-on product development role for an engineer who can take ownership of the electronics portion of a project from initial requirements and concept development through detailed design, prototype build, verification, qualification, and transition to production.

Essential Responsibilities

Electrical Product Development

• Own and execute electrical/electronic design activities throughout the product development lifecycle, from requirements and concept development through production release and ongoing product support.
• Develop electronic architectures and detailed hardware designs for complex electromechanical products and systems.
• Design and analyze analog, digital, mixed-signal, power, interface, and control circuitry.
• Develop and review electrical schematics, component selections, circuit card assemblies, and PCB designs.
• Perform circuit analysis and simulation using a variety of engineering tools.
• Develop prototypes and perform board bring-up, bench testing, troubleshooting, and design verification.
• Apply practical design-for-manufacturing considerations to ensure designs are reliable, producible, testable, and cost effective.
• Develop and execute engineering test plans and support product verification and qualification activities.
• Lead technical problem solving, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions during development and production.
• Support engineering changes, component obsolescence, product improvements, and cost-reduction initiatives.
• Support the transition of new designs into manufacturing and provide technical support to production as required.

Project & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the electrical engineering owner for assigned development projects.
• Translate product and system requirements into practical electronics designs and technical solutions.
• Coordinate electrical development activities with mechanical, software, systems, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and program teams.
• Participate in and/or lead technical and design reviews.
• Establish and maintain electrical engineering schedules, priorities, deliverables, and technical documentation for assigned projects.
• Work directly with suppliers and manufacturing partners to resolve design, fabrication, assembly, and component issues.
• Communicate technical risks, trade-offs, design decisions, and project status effectively to engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Support customer engineering discussions and technical proposal activities as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or closely related engineering discipline.
• 4+ years of professional electrical/electronics product development experience.
• Demonstrated experience designing analog and/or digital electronic circuits.
• Hands-on experience developing and interpreting electrical schematics.
• Experience with circuit analysis and simulation using PSpice, LTspice, SPICE, MATLAB, Mathcad, or similar tools.
• Experience with PCB/PCBA development, including familiarity with board layout, fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing processes.
• Hands-on experience with electronic test equipment such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, power analyzers, signal generators, or similar laboratory instrumentation.
• Demonstrated experience supporting products through multiple phases of the development lifecycle, such as requirements, design, prototyping, verification, qualification, manufacturing release, or production support.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively within multidisciplinary product development teams.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, documentation, and technical communication skills.
• Ability to travel occasionally to support market development and customer needs.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.

Preferred Qualifications

• Electronics for electromechanical products or systems
• Power electronics and power conversion
• Actuation or motion-related products
• Motors, motor drives, or motor-control electronics
• Sensors and position-feedback devices
• Embedded control electronics, Simulink modeling
• EMI/EMC design, troubleshooting, or qualification
• Aerospace, defense, medical device, industrial instrumentation, robotics, automotive, or other high-reliability product environments
• Environmental or product qualification testing
• Altium, Cadence, Mentor Graphics, or similar ECAD tools
• DO-160, MIL-STD-461, DO-254, IPC, IEC, or similar industry standards

What We're Looking For

The successful candidate will be a well-rounded electrical product development engineer who understands how electronics become real products—from requirements and initial circuit concepts through design, prototype hardware, troubleshooting, qualification, manufacturing, and production.

Direct experience with aerospace actuation or motion-control systems is valuable, but candidates with strong electronics product-development experience in other complex or high-reliability electromechanical products are encouraged to apply.

This is an on-site role (100%) at our Black Mountain NC facility (Relocation assistance is available)

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Equal Opportunity Employer/including Disabled/Veterans