Embedded Engineer

Description

AIM Solutions is an early-stage deep-tech startup in Eindhoven building inspection and metrology equipment for the semiconductor industry. We are in an active build phase: a small, growing team turning lab setups into a tool that does not exist anywhere else yet.

Responsibilities

• As Embedded Engineer you own everything between the instrument hardware and our acquisition software. You integrate cameras, frame grabbers, motion controllers, piezo stages, lasers and FPGA timing hardware, and you make them run as one synchronized, reliable scan. The work is hands-on: vendor SDKs, trigger wiring, PCIe cards and lab networks one day, clean driver code and a live data stream to the user interface the next. You work closely with the System, Mechatronics, Application and Algorithm engineers.
• Design the trigger and acquisition architecture that synchronizes camera exposure, stage motion and laser pulses.
• Integrate industrial cameras and frame grabbers through industry-standard interfaces and vendor SDKs, from driver set-up to stable high-rate acquisition.
• Integrate motion controllers and positioning stages through vendor APIs and controller scripting, including commissioning and tuning with the Mechatronics Engineer.
• Develop and extend FPGA-based timing and I/O for triggering and position-synchronized acquisition.
• Write driver and control layers in C/C++ and Python that the scan and reconstruction software builds on, and expose live status and data streams to the user interface.
• Own the instrument PC and lab network set-up: PCIe hardware, high-speed Ethernet links between devices, IP planning and device discovery.
• Bring up and debug hardware in the lab with oscilloscope, logic analyzer and network captures, and document interfaces and timing budgets with the System Engineer.
• Take part in code review and help move the set-up from prototype to a reproducible, maintainable tool.
• Your profile
• MSc in Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Applied Physics or a related field.
• ~5 years of hands-on experience integrating and controlling hardware, preferably in high-tech equipment, scientific instruments or industrial automation.
• Strong C/C++ and Python, including working with vendor SDKs and drivers on Windows and Linux.
• Proven experience with hardware triggering and synchronization of multiple devices (cameras, motion, lasers, DAQ).
• Experience with FPGA development or working closely with FPGA-based timing hardware.
• Solid grasp of hardware interfaces and networking: Ethernet, USB, serial, PCIe, and multi-device lab networks.
• Comfortable in the lab: reading schematics, using an oscilloscope and logic analyzer, and debugging where hardware and software meet.
• Experience with Git and collaborative code review.
• Full professional proficiency in English.
• We value judgment and ownership over a perfect match. If you recognize yourself in most of this, we would like to hear from you.
• Bonus
• Experience with machine-vision cameras, frame grabbers or high-throughput image acquisition.
• Experience with precision motion controllers and encoder-based position triggering.
• High-speed data paths to a host PC, SoC FPGAs or Linux driver development.
• Experience building lightweight web or API layers for instrument control and live data.
• Background in optics, lasers, coherent imaging, semiconductor metrology or lithography equipment.
• Experience with CI, hardware-in-the-loop testing, or working in a Scrum team.

Benefits

• Ownership of the embedded and timing backbone of a tool that does not exist anywhere else yet.
• A small team with short feedback loops and real impact on the product.
• Hands-on work at the meeting point of hardware, optics and software, on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
• A competitive salary for the Dutch market.