Hardware Design Engineer Entry Level Jobs in Lexington, KY

Company Name: ASTEMO AMERICAS, INC.

Job Family: Manufacturing & Operations

Job Description: The Hardware Engineer is responsible for supporting 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 supporting the response to new business quotations and advanced development for transfer case, suspension, or BMS control units. The ideal candidate brings strong problem solving skills, strong understanding of electrical engineering concepts, interest and enthusiasm for hardware electronics design, and a willingness to learn.

Support electrical design by working with a more senior engineer to create an electrical concept with clean sheet design or modifying an existing design to suit new requirements. 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. With the support of a supervising engineer, provide technical representation for 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. Test electrical designs using common lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, power supplies, arbitrary loads, etc. to create a test report with meaningful data for review by the larger team.

• 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.
• Familiarity with common laboratory equipment and measuring electronic circuits to provide meaningful data.
• 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.

(Preferred) BS Electrical Engineering or related 4-year technical degree with equivalent industry experience.

• 2 years of experience in automotive ECU design and development environment.
• 1+ years of experience in driveline control or suspension control or BMS design.

• Must 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.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status and national origin. 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.