Electrical Engineer / Hardware Designer — IoT Product Development

We are an American technology company building a line of IoT hardware products for the professional B2B market. We are looking for a part-time electrical engineer to own the hardware side of our product development from schematic design through PCB fabrication and component sourcing.

This is not a one-off freelance project. This is an ongoing role on a small, focused team. You will be our hardware person. We have multiple products planned over the next 1–2 years, starting with a battery-powered e-paper display system. Our software and firmware are handled by a separate team. Your focus is the physical electronics: circuit board design, component selection, PCB ordering, and coordination with mechanical/enclosure designers.

What You Will Do
• Design schematics and PCB layouts in KiCad based on specifications we provide
• Select components and source parts from LCSC, Mouser, DigiKey, and AliExpress
• Generate manufacturing files and order assembled PCBs from JLCPCB
• Read datasheets, verify pin assignments, check footprints, and confirm compatibility before ordering
• Troubleshoot assembled boards (we will provide test equipment as needed)
• Coordinate with enclosure designers on board dimensions, mounting holes, and connector placement
• Maintain organized project files in Git (we will set up repositories for you)
• Communicate daily via chat/messaging and weekly via video call

Current Project
Your first project is two small I2C expansion boards for an ESP32-S3-based e-paper display product:
Board A - Button Strip: A long narrow PCB (~260mm × 15mm) carrying an MCP23017 GPIO expander, 7 IP67 sealed tactile switches, a WS2812B addressable RGB LED, an LIS3DH accelerometer, a DRV5032 hall effect sensor, a piezo buzzer with MOSFET driver, ESD protection, and Qwiic/STEMMA QT connectors. Standard I2C bus, 3.3V logic, straightforward 2-layer board.
Board B - NFC Reader: A small PCB carrying a PN532 NFC module and a Qwiic connector. Very simple board.
Additionally: specify battery contacts and wiring harness for a 21700 lithium cell, and create a connection guide documenting how the expansion boards wire to the main driver board.
The full technical specification for these boards is already written and will be provided to the person we hire. All design decisions have been made: component choices, I2C addresses, pin allocations, connector types. Your job is to translate the specification into working KiCad files, order boards from JLCPCB, and verify they work.

Future Projects
After the expansion boards, upcoming hardware work includes:
• Enclosure design coordination (working with a mechanical designer)
• A barcode/document scanner accessory
• RFID scanners
• Possible custom main board (consolidating the current off-the-shelf driver board into a single integrated PCB)
• Other IoT accessories for our product platform

This role grows as the product line grows.

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Requirements

Must Have
• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or closely related field
• Ability to read and understand component datasheets, application notes, and reference designs
• Working knowledge of basic electronics: I2C, SPI, GPIO, pull-up resistors, decoupling capacitors, voltage regulators, MOSFETs
• Experience with KiCad (Or strong willingness to learn. If you know Altium, Eagle, or EasyEDA, KiCad will come quickly.)
• Experience ordering PCBs from JLCPCB, PCBWay, or similar fab houses
• Careful and detail-oriented - you double-check footprints before ordering, you verify pin assignments against the datasheet, you ask questions when something is unclear
• Strong written English communication
• Reliable internet connection and availability during overlapping work hours (we are in US Pacific time, UTC-8)

Nice to Have
• Experience with ESP32 or other microcontroller platforms
• Experience with I2C sensor boards, GPIO expanders, or NFC modules
• Familiarity with Git/GitHub for version control
• Experience with JLCPCB's SMT assembly service specifically (BOM formatting, CPL files)
• Any experience with e-paper/e-ink displays
• Experience with consumer or IoT product development (not just academic projects)
• RF or antenna design

Not Required
• Firmware or software development (we handle this)
• Mechanical / enclosure design (potentially separate role, but you will coordinate with that person)
• High-speed digital or power electronics

Strong Bonus
Experience with 3D CAD (Fusion 360 or SolidWorks) for enclosure design. Our products require custom 3D-printed enclosures, and a candidate who can own both the electronics and the enclosure design will be prioritized and compensated at the higher end of the range. If you have designed and 3D-printed enclosures for electronics projects - even personal or academic projects - please include photos, CPL files)

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Work Arrangement
• Hours: 20 hours per week to start, with potential to increase as projects grow
• Schedule: Flexible, but we need at least 2–3 hours of overlap with US Pacific time (evenings in the Philippines typically work well) for real-time communication
• Communication: Daily async updates via chat (Slack or similar), weekly 30-minute video call for project sync
• Tools we provide: GitHub repository access, KiCad project templates, all component datasheets and specifications, JLCPCB account or reimbursement for fabrication orders
• Duration: Ongoing, long-term. This is not a 1-month contract. We are building a multi-year product line and want someone who grows with us.

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Compensation
?45,000–65,000/month (~$800–1,200 USD)
Payment monthly via bank transfer, PayPal, or Wise.

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How to Apply

Please provide:
1. Your resume or CV with education, work experience, and any relevant projects
2. 2 or more examples of PCBs you have designed - KiCad screenshots, Gerber renders, or photos of assembled boards. Academic projects are fine if you have no professional examples. If you have not designed a PCB before, please be honest about that.
3. A brief message (3-5 sentences) explaining why this role interests you and what relevant experience you have
4. A short video introduction (1–2 minutes, phone camera is fine). Please tell us your name, your educational background, one electronics project you've worked on that you're proud of, and why this role interests you. We are not evaluating production quality - we want to hear how you communicate and learn a bit about your experience in your own words.

Paid Screening Task
Qualified applicants will be invited to complete a short paid test ($20 USD):
We will send you a schematic of an existing circuit board and a component datasheet. Using those references, draw a schematic (in KiCad, by hand, or in any tool you prefer) showing how to connect an MCP23017 I2C GPIO expander to an ESP32-S3's I2C bus with 4 tactile button inputs, proper pull-up resistors, decoupling capacitors, and debounce capacitors. Include I2C device addressing.

This should take 30-60 minutes for someone comfortable with I2C and basic schematic capture. We are evaluating: correctness of the circuit, understanding of I2C fundamentals, attention to detail (pull-ups, decoupling, addressing), and clarity of the schematic.

Everyone who completes the test will be paid regardless of whether we hire them.

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About Us
We are a small US-based technology company building software and hardware products for a specialized professional market. Our software platform is in active development. The hardware products are IoT accessories that connect to our software platform via WiFi/MQTT. We are a small team that values clear communication, careful work, and people who take ownership of their area.

This is a real company building real products. We are looking for someone who wants to grow with us, not someone looking for a quick gig.

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To Apply
Send your application through OnlineJobs.ph with your resume, PCB examples (if any), and your brief message. We will respond to all qualified applicants within 3–5 business days.