Software Design Engineer

About the Organisation: Our client is an established, high-technology electronics and engineering business headquartered in Oxfordshire, operating across commercial, government, and defence markets. The organisation designs, manufactures, and delivers advanced RF, fibre optic, and sensing systems for applications including satellite ground stations, broadcast infrastructure, secure communications, and defence platforms. With a workforce of approximately 80 and a dedicated engineering team of 30, the business has achieved consistent and strong financial growth in recent years. As part of a larger, well-capitalised parent group, the organisation benefits from increased investment and expanded market access whilst retaining operational autonomy, agility, and an entrepreneurial culture. The company holds Gold Investors in People accreditation and is certified to ISO 9001.

Role Overview: Software capability has become increasingly central to the organisation's product strategy. Over the past 18–24 months, the business has transitioned from short-cycle, feature-level software development into the delivery of larger, more complex subsystems with higher technical, architectural, and quality expectations. This role has been created to strengthen the software team's capacity and capability as the business continues to scale. The Software Design Engineer will work as part of a multidisciplinary engineering team, contributing to higher-level and full-stack software development across embedded device interaction, networked sensor systems, user-facing interfaces, web-based tools, and internal automation systems. The role requires close collaboration with RF, electronics, systems, and hardware engineering disciplines. This is an application-level development role rather than an embedded firmware position, though regular interaction with embedded systems is integral to the work.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and maintain high-quality C++17 software across the development stack
• Contribute to the architecture and implementation of new software modules
• Support system architects in requirements analysis and early-stage technical definition
• Extend and maintain existing software platforms and product features
• Perform software–hardware integration testing on internally developed hardware platforms
• Contribute to DevOps and CI/CD workflow improvements, including Jenkins/GitLab, Yocto, and containerisation
• Develop and improve internal tooling, automation, and AI-assisted development practices
• Ensure all software deliverables meet the organisation's engineering, documentation, and quality standards

Initial Project Scope: During the first 6–12 months, the successful candidate will be expected to contribute to work including:

• Firmware device control and internal hardware–software integration
• User interface development for system configuration, visibility, and control
• Implementation of interface protocols, including optical product control and SNMP
• Web interface development using NGINX and REST
• Application-layer algorithm support as defined by systems architects
• Feature additions and enhancements to existing software platforms

Essential Skills and Experience:

• Proficiency in object-oriented, high-level programming languages, particularly C++ and Python
• Version control and software library management using Git
• Linux development environment experience, including bash and shell scripting

Desirable Skills and Experience:

• TCP/IP networking, including DNS routing, VPN, and firewall configuration
• Continuous integration and delivery tools such as Jenkins and GitLab
• Configuration and manipulation of data within SQL databases
• JavaScript and HTML web development
• Embedded Linux build systems such as the Yocto Project
• OS-level containerisation tools including Docker
• Cloud or virtualisation platform administration (AWS or Proxmox)
• Agile development methodologies and task management tools such as Jira
• Practical knowledge of antenna properties and signal propagation principles

Candidates who are Chartered Engineers, or are actively working towards Chartered Engineer registration, are encouraged to apply.

Person Specification: Technical competence is essential; however, the organisation places equal emphasis on professional mindset. The successful candidate will demonstrate intellectual curiosity, a proactive and collaborative working style, and the ability to take genuine ownership of technical solutions. Candidates from RF, electronics, or adjacent engineering disciplines who possess strong core software skills and a flexible, problem-solving approach are particularly welcome.

Remuneration and Benefits: Highly competitive base salary, company bonus scheme, share incentive plan, defined contribution pension plan, group life insurance at 4x basic annual salary, employee assistance programme, wellbeing application and retail discount scheme, cycle-to-work scheme, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell additional days.

Eligibility Requirements: Candidates must hold a minimum of five years of continuous residency in the United Kingdom and are ideally required to be a UK Sole National. This is a condition of employment due to the nature of the work undertaken by the organisation. This appointment is being managed exclusively by a specialist recruitment consultancy on behalf of the client organisation. Interested candidates are invited to apply via LinkedIn or to contact the recruiting consultant directly for a confidential discussion.