Electronics Engineering Technician

LA Techniques Ltd is a small technology company based in Surbiton. Founded in 1997, we have been designing and manufacturing electronic products in-house for the past 28 years. Our main product is a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) – an essential piece of laboratory equipment for any company working in the communications, high-speed electronics, or space industries. LA Techniques Ltd is the UK\’s only developer and manufacturer of VNAs. The company competes on the international stage against companies in Europe, the USA, Japan and China to push the performance-per-dollar that can be achieved by VNAs.

We\’re looking for a hands-on and conscientious electronics engineering technician to work as part of our small and dynamic team in Surbiton, Surrey. We\’re looking for someone ready to embark on the next stage of their career in diagnosing and troubleshooting problems in advanced electronic circuits operating at RF and microwave frequencies.

In the role, you\’d be following established calibration procedures and test procedures to verify our products before they are shipped to customers. You\’d be reading circuit diagrams and using electronic test equipment to find and diagnose faults in circuits. If your experience and interests allow, you\’d also be designing new analogue circuits.

We\’re a small and tightly-integrated team: you would be working closely with our design engineers who would support you in your work, and to whom you would feed back problems directly. As part of a small team, you would be spending all of your time working with the electronics, and not caught up in paperwork or lengthy reporting processes.

Responsibilities

In the job, you will be working on testing, production, calibration and troubleshooting of electronic devices. This is an in-person position with no option for remote work due to the need to work directly on electronic circuits manufactured in-house. The full-time position would be 37.5 hours per week, with flexible working hours. The salary is £27,000 (or £27,000 pro rata for a part-time position).

Your profile

The role may suit an electronics graduate or early-career engineer, looking to learn from the best and pick up a solid set of engineering principles and practices that will serve you well throughout your career. Alternatively, the role could be a part-time one, for someone looking for an interesting position with the need to balance that alongside other responsibilities.

Our expert team at LA Techniques Ltd is high experienced. This role is a unique opportunity to learn from some of the best engineers in the industry, and develop your skills and knowledge while working on innovative and industry-leading products.

Qualifications

You will primarily be working on testing analogue circuits.

The essential requirements are:

• Experience: Degree, HND or other level 5 qualification in a relevant field (electronics or physics, or closely related quantitative discipline), or past experience of testing and troubleshooting electronic circuits.
• Knowledge: Strong understanding of analogue design principles. Ability to design and build basic circuits involving passive components (resistors, capacitors and inductors) and simple active components (such as operational amplifiers).
• Right to work in the UK: Right to work in the UK. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.
• Skill: Ability to use a microscope and handle small electronic components using tweezers.
• Skill: Ability to read analogue circuit diagrams and relate the parts of a manufactured printed circuit board to the circuit schematic.
• Skill: Proficiency with electronics test equipment, such as oscilloscopes.
• Skill: Attention to detail and quality.
• Approach: Hands-on and practical. Ability to solder and de-solder surface mount components.

Any of the following would be considered helpful, but not required for effective performance in the core role:

• Knowledge: Strong understanding of RF and microwave design principles.
• Skill: Electronic simulation, with experience of Agilent’s ADS simulation software (or similar) and Altium Designer PCB tool.
• Skill: Software programming. Ability to automate test procedures by writing simple scripts, for example in Python.

Benefits

• Flexible working hours (must broadly overlap with a standard working day for training and interacting with the rest of the team, but no fixed requirement).
• Support for personal development and training.