Senior Validation Engineer in Hebburn, North East

The Client Catalyst is delighted to be once more supporting a key client in the electrification technology sector in their recruitment of a Senior Validation Engineer to be based from their Tyneside HQ. My client is a global leader in their field and is undergoing an exciting period of change.

The Role

Reporting to the Electrical Engineering Lead, the Senior Validation Engineer will be responsible for the offering of engineering support to the NPD process and team. The Senior Validation Engineer will be responsible for the specification, test, validation and qualification of newly developed power electronic devices against their regulatory requirements and ultimately gain their accredited certification.

Main Responsibilities

• Working closely with the hardware, software, mechanical and system engineering teams, as well as project management and product/quality management.
• Creating and following a New Product Integration Validation and Verification test plan.
• Helping create validation test criteria/procedures.
• Identifying, specifying and creating any necessary test environment.
• Testing and troubleshooting electronic assemblies, components and circuits.
• Performing and documenting a full suite of tests (cross referencing the specification requirements) and independently determining compliance or not.
• Identifying and managing risks, making sound judgments about quality and feeding into the team's decision to release a product or change an existing product.
• Reading, understanding, and keeping updated on all regulatory standards relevant to our product ranges and desired applications, including EMC standards, Electrical safety and Functional safety standards and UL/CSA.
• Extracting key requirements specific for our products and setting them out as development requirements to design and test our products against.
• Understanding the regulatory test methods/conditions and creating test cases (descriptions/procedures, equipment, wiring looms, loads etc.) to be performed on our products.
• Creating test plans for compliance de-risk testing within the product development cycle.
• Organizing and pulling together all equipment, loads, wiring etc. needed to perform the tests.
• Setting up and performing the testing (in house for pre-compliance work, or at external test house for final full compliance accreditation).
• Willingness to travel occasionally for final full compliance testing when using an external test house.
• Capturing all results and creating traceability reports, determining pass/fail status.
• Liaising with external test houses and/or approval bodies to discuss/plan and quote blocks of compliance testing.
• Commissioning and debugging electronic circuits, components and PCB assemblies for new product development and sustaining projects.
• Designing, setting up and running tests to ensure the design meets specifications.
• Maintaining records and documentation on all tests and analysis.
• Using industry standard development systems to achieve traceability and cross referencing for V&V.
• Working within a small design team to complete assigned objectives.
• Troubleshooting circuits from prototypes, development, and customer returns.
• Being the key interface for overall system (HW, SW, ME) for validation and alignment on test plan, priorities and execution.
• Working with Engineering to improve checklist of verification and validation tests and to define criteria for entry into Validation phase.
• Identifying and resolving validation blockers.
• Driving closure of issues/findings.
• Establishing a disciplined reporting and communication dashboard of project risks & status with respect to quality and readiness for release.
• Improving the scope and coverage of automated tests.
• Augmenting the validation lab and life test capability and process.
• Performing change validation before ECN/ECO release.
• This role requires some desk and IT work (planning, researching, writing test procedures, documenting test reports etc.) as well as practical hands-on engineering, building test bench setups, adapting and modifying metalwork, cables, electronics, loads, operating test equipment, commissioning, debugging and repairing test units.

About you

To be considered for the role, it is essential that you are an experienced electronics test/product validation engineering professional with demonstrable experience and in-depth knowledge of regulatory standards and test methods for product validation/compliance.

Key Selection Criteria

• Bachelors degree or equivalent (preferably with bias towards power electronics).
• Demonstrable hands-on experience in a test and/or QA Validation role at system level (HW/SW) - experience of compliance testing for EMC/Vibration/IP ratings and/or UL would be beneficial.
• Experience of working with power electronic systems (experience with Higher voltage systems 200V to 800V DC preferred but not essential).
• An intuitive and practical disposition.
• Organized, proactive and independent.
• An understanding of Safe practice (H&S).
• Knowledge of switching power converters.
• Knowledge of circuit analysis, and design of experiments.
• Knowledge and experience in QMS ISO 9001, TS 16949, or ISO 26262.
• Knowledge and experience in applicable product regulatory standards such as (EN1175, EN13849, UL 0583, and EN12895).
• Willingness to travel to external test laboratories occasionally.
• Experience of ESD/EMC principles and practices.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• PC literate with experience in MS Office and databases (good and thorough documentation skills).

This is an excellent opportunity to join a market leader in their specialist field of technology and to work from their highly impressive operation in Tyneside.