Freelance Sensor Design Engineer Jobs in Kentucky

ASTEMO AMERICAS, INC.Engineering

Job Description:

General Responsibilities:

The Senior Hardware Engineer is responsible for supporting and advising hardware design and development of a transfer case, suspension, or BMS electronic control units (ECUs) through all phases of the automotive product lifecycle. This role will primarily be responsible for responding to new business quotations and advanced development for transfer case, suspension, or BMS control units. The ideal candidate brings strong experience in automotive ECU development, and excellent communication and customer-facing skills to drive technical excellence and customer satisfaction, as well as providing mentorship to less experienced engineers.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead the electrical design response to new business opportunities by creating an electrical concept either with clean sheet design or a modification of an existing / advanced development design.
• Collaborate with the mechanical engineering team, system engineering team, production team, and software team to create a complete design proposal.
• Work with electrical component suppliers to understand possible solutions for clean sheet design or modifications to existing or advanced development designs. This includes understanding directional cost to achieve a cost optimized solution
• Support hardware design and development of electronic control units from concept through production, ensuring compliance with automotive quality and reliability standards.
• Serve as a technical representative of the electrical hardware team to the customer or internal groups to present design status, technical proposals, and issue resolutions.
• Communicate hardware status, risks, and issues to both internal leadership, program management, and the customer in a timely and transparent manner.
• Support design reviews (e.g., schematic reviews, DFMEA, design verification) and drive resolution of action items.
• Contribute to the definition and management of hardware requirements, ensuring traceability from customer specifications through implementation.
• Collaborate with manufacturing teams to ensure hardware designs are production-ready, supporting DFM reviews, build support, and the smooth transition from prototype through series production.

Desired Knowledge / Skills

• Strong electrical design knowledge in the context of 12V automotive systems, including power distribution, signal conditioning, protection circuitry, and grounding strategies.
• Familiarity with power electronics topologies including H-bridge motor drivers, high-side and low-side drive circuits, BLDC motor control, buck/boost switching regulators, and linear voltage regulation.
• Basic understanding of ADC signal chains, including input filtering, reference voltage considerations, and signal scaling for sensor measurement applications.
• Familiarity with digital communication interfaces such as CAN, SPI, and SENT.
• Experience collaborating with simulation teams on power dissipation analysis, thermal modeling, and FEA to validate hardware designs meet thermal and reliability requirements.
• Understanding of hardware reliability and validation testing methods, including environmental stress testing and qualification testing, as well as experience defining functional tester requirements to support design verification and production readiness.
• Familiarity with driveline control systems (transfer case, suspension) and an understanding of how these subsystems integrate and function within the broader vehicle architecture.
• Familiarity with battery management systems (BMS) and an understanding of how these subsystems integrate and function within the broader vehicle architecture.
• Familiarity with ASPICE 4.0 hardware engineering (HWE) design concepts and process requirements.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks, priorities, and deliverables across concurrent projects.
• Fluent in English, both written and verbal communication.

Education Requirements:

• (Preferred) BS Electrical Engineering
• Related 5-year technical degree with equivalent industry experience

Experience Requirements:

• 5-7 years of experience in automotive ECU design and development environment
• (Preferred) 3+ years of experience in driveline control or suspension control or BMS design

Working Conditions:

Physical Demands:Required to sit or stand for long periods in an industrial lab environment. The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Dexterity of hands, fingers, and wrists to operate a computer keyboard, mouse, and other computer components.

Travel:Domestic and international may be required as needed up to 10%. The candidate will occasionally need to travel to multiple global locations to support project development.

Work Environment:Some amount of working remotely is allowed but the candidate must be physically present in the office/lab when duties dictate the need.

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) - Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, identity, disability, protected veteran status and national origin.

At Astemo, we're challenging the status quo with the power of diversity, inclusion, and collaboration. Our goal is to build an inclusive work environment that celebrates the differences of our employees. We want to ensure that every employee feels valued, respected and empowered. We don't just accept difference-we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Astemo is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job at Astemo, please send the nature of the request and contact information to am-jobs@hitachiastemo.com when applying for the position.