Senior Electrical Engineer - Design

About the role

Forterra is looking for a hands-on Electrical Engineer to join the Core Product team in Clarksburg, MD.  

You will be working with a small team of engineers to develop autonomous systems for military and commercial vehicles. This involves designing and building the systems critical for autonomous vehicles using components such as embedded computers, power systems, networking components and various sensors.  

Your time will be split between working on the next gen system design, and maintaining existing fielded designs. This involves working on PCB/CCA designs with SoCs, microprocessors/controllers, and interfaces such as DDR, I2C, CAN, SPI, SerDes and automotive ethernet. You will also work on power supply designs for both PCBs designed in-house, as well as COTS components. Integration and debug of both in-house designs and COTS designs is also necessary for the role, as quick technology updates are always on the roadmap.  

What you'll do

Design 

• Design high-reliability & high-safety criticality hardware for both commercial and military autonomous vehicles.   
• Generate design documentation for design maintainability, such as stress analysis, power budgets, firmware/hardware interfaces, SI and PI analysis, component and design trades.  
• Provide technical leadership on projects to guide a small, focused team of electrical engineers to develop new hardware designs from concept through production.   

Validation 

• Suggest and perform prototyping testing for risk-reduction of circuits at the component, subsystem, and system levels.   
• Perform validation testing of designs through analysis, simulation, and hardware testing.   
• Conduct hardware bring-up, debugging, and validation testing at board and subsystem levels. 
• Maintain design verification test matrix. 

Collaboration 

• Participate in interdisciplinary design teams and design reviews.   
• Work cross functionally with systems, safety, software, test, other engineering groups and procurement throughout all phases of the product development lifecycle.   

Long-Term Support 

• Identify and implement improvements of designs to reduce cost, increase yield, and improve throughput.   
• Provide production build support for the manufacturing of prototypes through volume ramp-up to production.  
• Mentor and train junior engineers.  

Minimum Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering.   
• 6+ years of hardware design experience.   
• Design and simulation of complex digital and analog circuits, using circuit simulator, signal integrity and power integrity tools like LTSpice and HyperLynx. 
• Experience working with analog and high-speed (3GHz+) digital signals.   
• Experience designing high power and high-speed PCB stackups for high-reliability / high-safety criticality systems.  
• Excellent problem-solving skills, hands-on abilities, and working knowledge of common test equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and VNAs.  
• Familiarity with design, analysis and manufacturing standards associated with complex multi-layer PCBs.   
• Ability to solve complex technical problems independently.   
• Ability to work cross-functionally.   
• Experience with design for cost, test and manufacturing.  
• Experience with Altium Designer, OrCAD, or similar schematic capture / PCB Layout software.   

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in small engineering team environment.  
• Experience with automotive hardware design.   
• Experience designing networking hardware.   
• Experience designing embedded computers.   
• Experience working with automotive camera system designs including GMSL & MIPI CSI-2.   
• Experience with safety standards such as ISO 26262 and MIL-STD-882E.   
• Familiarity  electrical and environmental standards such as with MIL-STD-1275, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-464, MIL-STD- 810. 

US Salary Range
 $120,000 — $160,000

Location

Hybrid in Clarksburg, MD

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.  
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption. 
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires. 
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

CLEARANCE ELIGIBILITY - This position may require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. For more information about U.S. Security Clearances: click here.   

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in all personnel practices. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain.  

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any factor, including veteran and disability status, and criminal history, in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws.

Forterra is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.

To see Forterra’s candidate data privacy policy, please visit Forterra Legal | Job Applicant Privacy Notice. 

About Forterra

At Forterra, we are unleashing autonomy at scale to transform the battlefield. Our mission is to build the foundational platforms that enable an intelligent ecosystem to coordinate, adapt, and execute with speed and precision even in the uncertainty and disruption of modern conflict. In an era marked by rapid technological change and evolving threats, we design for flexibility, survivability, and operational dominance.

Forterra delivers weapons, sensors, and battlefield effects through integrated autonomous networks reaching operational areas faster, safer, and without placing human lives at risk. Our systems operate with distributed control, dynamic routing, and real-time responsiveness, enabling sustained advantage across complex mission environments.