Embedded Engineer

About the role

Xcimer Energy leverages decades of research on Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) combined with groundbreaking new laser architecture. Our mission is to deploy fusion power plants to meet global decarbonization goals as fast as possible. Xcimer has assembled a team of leaders in tough tech, fusion science, and manufacturing with a track record of rapid execution. Supported by leading investors, Xcimer is uniquely positioned to deliver limitless, clean, fusion power to combat climate change. Join us in powering a better world with inertial fusion!

This is a full-time, onsite role based at our headquarters in Denver, CO.

As an Embedded Engineer, you will apply your skills to the design, bring-up, and integration of custom electronics and the firmware that runs on them, for systems that sense, time, control, and protect Xcimer’s laser and pulsed power systems, initially in support of Xcimer’s directed energy program, which is developing multi-kilojoule-class pulsed lasers for air defense applications. Working within the Electrical Engineering department, you will own boards and their firmware from requirements through fabrication, bring-up, test, and deployment, working independently on problems of diverse scope with review at key design milestones. We are looking for our engineers to apply their technical expertise, problem solving skills, and dedication to quality to positively impact the future of energy!

Responsibilities: - Design, simulate, and lay out mixed-signal printed circuit boards, including schematic capture, component selection, and multi-layer layout in Altium Designer.

- Design, implement, and maintain firmware for microcontroller and FPGA SoC based boards in C/C++, including drivers, board support, communication stacks, and application logic.

- Own assigned boards and their firmware end to end: derive requirements with system owners, produce design documentation, present at design reviews, manage fabrication and assembly, and support installation and commissioning.

- Perform board bring-up and debug at the register and signal level, root-cause hardware and firmware issues together, and close out findings through documented design changes.

- Implement deterministic, real-time control and data acquisition, including interrupt handling, DMA, timing and trigger capture, and RTOS based execution.

- Integrate custom electronics with the broader control system, including PLC and EtherCAT I/O, LabVIEW and Python based data acquisition, and precision timing and trigger networks.

- Develop test procedures, automated test fixtures, hardware-in-the-loop tests, and regression tests, and document verification and acceptance results.

- Solicit feedback from end users such as operators, physicists, and controls engineers, and close the design loop through iterative improvements.

- Lead small projects or work packages, coordinating with controls, mechanical, software, and manufacturing teams, and begin mentoring junior engineers and interns.