Senior Instrumentation Engineer Jobs in Washington

Position Title: Senior Hardware Infrastructure Engineer – GSE (Ground Support Equipment)
Requisition ID: 1785
Position Location: Sterling, Virginia
Position Reports To: Manager, Space Electronic Systems
Supervises Others: No

At Trident Systems, we believe that strong engineering principles are fundamental to driving innovation and solving complex problems. We promote a culture characterized by rigorous engineering practices and a commitment to continuous improvement. This is achieved by leveraging our organization's collective expertise through collaborative development processes, which include thorough design and peer reviews. We can deliver innovative, high-performance solutions that meet our customers' evolving requirements by integrating our specialized knowledge in aerospace electronic systems with appropriately scaled development methodologies.

We are a mission partner supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, and Civil space customers. We develop complex, radiation effects mitigated, designs that balance competing requirements in modern space programs, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to achieve more in space.

Position Summary

The Senior Hardware Infrastructure Engineer – GSE owns the design, build, deployment, and sustainment of ground support hardware infrastructure used to support development, validation, troubleshooting, and production support of complex aerospace electronics and power systems. This role is highly hands-on and spans rack-level hardware architecture, instrumentation integration, power distribution, harness and cable development, fixture design, configuration control, and cross-disciplinary debugging.

The ideal candidate is a practical systems builder who can take concepts from blank-sheet architecture through deployed operational hardware and support engineering teams in diagnosing complex system-level issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy ground support equipment (GSE) infrastructure including equipment racks, bench systems, fixtures, breakout hardware, adapter panels, and support hardware.
• Develop rack-level hardware architectures including instrumentation layout, power distribution, cable management, grounding, thermal considerations, and serviceability.
• Design, fabricate, document, and maintain custom cable harnesses, interconnect assemblies, and hardware interface solutions.
• Integrate laboratory instrumentation including oscilloscopes, DAQs, DMMs, programmable power supplies, electronic loads, switching systems, network hardware, and specialized test equipment.
• Support development, validation, and troubleshooting of aerospace electronics including embedded computer systems, FPGA-based hardware, digital interfaces, and power electronics.
• Troubleshoot issues spanning wiring, grounding, signal integrity, instrumentation behavior, power distribution, mechanical fit-up, connectorization, and hardware integration.
• Develop reusable hardware infrastructure that supports scalable engineering validation, production support, and automated engineering workflows.
• Own bills of material (BOMs), rack documentation, wiring diagrams, interface documentation, inventory tracking, calibration readiness, and hardware configuration control.
• Assist in selecting COTS instrumentation, electrical hardware, interconnect components, and mechanical hardware to support engineering and production needs.
• Partner with electrical, embedded software, FPGA, systems, and automation engineering teams to support efficient development and debugging workflows.
• Maintain safe lab practices including ESD controls, wiring discipline, grounding practices, and safe operation of powered systems.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 6+ years of related experience (OR 4+ years of experience with a Master’s degree OR 10+ years in lieu of a degree)
• Experience designing, building, or maintaining complex hardware infrastructure, GSE, lab systems, automated equipment, industrial systems, or similar engineering hardware environments.
• Hands-on experience with equipment racks, harnessing, wiring, instrumentation integration, and hardware assembly.
• Experience with laboratory instrumentation including oscilloscopes, DAQs, DMMs, programmable power supplies, loads, and switching systems.
• Experience developing technical documentation including BOMs, wiring documentation, interface definitions, inventory records, or configuration-controlled hardware documentation.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across electrical, mechanical, and hardware integration domains.
• Familiarity with embedded electronics, hardware interfaces, serial communications, and practical debug methodologies.
• Ability to independently own hardware projects from concept through deployment.
• Strong organizational, communication, and documentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability engineering environments.
• Experience supporting aerospace electronics, FPGA-based systems, embedded hardware, power electronics, or similar complex technical hardware.
• Experience with industrial automation, robotics, control systems, or electro-mechanical system development.
• Familiarity with custom fixture development, rapid prototyping, or mechanical integration activities.
• Experience with CAD tools for rack layouts, harness design, fixture development, or mechanical packaging.
• Familiarity with Python-based automation, instrument control, or automation-ready hardware environments.
• Knowledge of EMI/EMC, grounding practices, ESD protection, and high-reliability hardware design considerations.

Pay Information

Full-Time Salary Range: $93,000 - $172,000
Please Note: Actual compensation offered will be determined based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, education, certifications, internal equity, business considerations, and geographic location where applicable.

Benefits

Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits including but not limited to:

• Health benefits
  • Medical
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • Basic life with AD&D
  • Short term disability
  • Long term disability
  • Ancillary (Voluntary life with AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital, and pet)
  • Spending accounts (HSA, FSA, and DCFSA)
• Paid time off
• Holidays
• 401(k) (including company match)
• Tuition reimbursement
• Leaves (Parental, maternity, and military)
• Annual discretionary bonus (for eligible roles)

Trident Systems reserves the right to change or assign other duties to this position.

Trident Solutions is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact recruiting@tridsys.com.

Pay Transparency: The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)