Join the team that design and build products!
We’re hiring engineers, designers, and operators who want to do real product work. US-based team in Alpharetta, GA. Full in-house lab. 15 years of building products that ship.
Why Gradient
We’re project-based, not staff-aug. That means our engineers own deliverables, not timesheets. The work is varied: one quarter you’re tuning antennas, the next you’re bringing up a custom SOM or debugging a Linux boot issue at 3 AM with the rest of the team backing you up. We invest in the lab, we invest in tools, and we hire people who actually like the work.
What you can expect from us:
- Competitive base salary plus performance bonus
- Full health, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) with company match
- Paid time off and major holidays
- Continuous learning budget for conferences, certifications, and training
- A real engineering lab with the tools you need to do the work right
- An in-person team in Alpharetta, GA, not a distributed Zoom culture
Open Positions
Sales Manager
Location: Alpharetta, GA (hybrid, with travel to clients and trade shows) Type: Full-time Experience: 8+ years
About the role
You’ll lead business development for new client engagements at Gradient. This isn’t a transactional sales role — our engagements run from $25K scoping studies to $500K+ multi-phase product development programs. You need to understand how embedded products get built, scope an engagement accurately on a first call, and build long-term client relationships.
What you’ll do
- Own the new business pipeline from first contact through signed contract
- Qualify inbound opportunities and run discovery calls with prospective clients
- Scope engineering engagements with technical accuracy and commercial judgment
- Prepare proposals and statements of work in coordination with engineering leadership
- Represent Gradient at trade shows, industry events, and customer sites
- Develop strategic partnerships with complementary vendors and channel partners
- Maintain CRM hygiene and forecast accurately
- Work alongside our marketing function on lead generation and content strategy
Required qualifications
- 8+ years in technical sales, business development, or engineering services
- Track record of closing engineering services contracts in the $50K-$500K+ range
- Working knowledge of embedded systems, electronics product development, or adjacent technical fields
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Comfort presenting to technical and executive audiences
- BS in Engineering, Business, or equivalent experience
Preferred qualifications
- Background in electronics, embedded systems, or product development services
- Existing network in consumer electronics, IoT, medical devices, or industrial markets
- Experience with both startup and enterprise client segments
- MBA or technical graduate degree
Project Manager
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Full-time Experience: 5+ years
About the role
You’ll own client engagements from kickoff through delivery, working across our engineering, operations, and client teams. Our projects run anywhere from 6 weeks to 18 months and involve hardware, firmware, mechanical, RF, certification, and manufacturing — usually all at once. You’ll be the person who keeps everything on track.
What you’ll do
- Lead client engagements from kickoff through final delivery
- Build and maintain detailed project schedules, dependencies, and milestones
- Run weekly status meetings with both internal teams and clients
- Manage scope, identify risks early, and drive resolution
- Coordinate across disciplines: hardware, firmware, mechanical, RF, manufacturing
- Track project financials including burn rate, change orders, and milestone billing
- Manage client relationships during delivery and serve as the primary point of contact
- Document lessons learned and contribute to our internal PM playbook
Required qualifications
- 5+ years of project management experience in hardware, electronics, or embedded systems
- Demonstrated ability to manage multi-disciplinary engineering projects
- PMP certification or equivalent PM training (PRINCE2, Agile, Scrum)
- Strong written and verbal communication
- Comfort with technical scope discussions even if you don’t write code
- BS degree or equivalent experience
Preferred qualifications
- Experience in consulting or engineering services environments
- Background in PMO leadership at a product company
- Familiarity with hardware NPI processes and certification timelines
- Experience with project management tools (Jira, Smartsheet, MS Project)
Senior Firmware Engineer
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Full-time Experience: 7+ years
About the role
You’ll own firmware delivery on complex embedded products across consumer, medical, industrial, and IoT. You’ll work directly with clients, lead technical decisions on architecture, and mentor junior engineers. This isn’t a feature-ticket role — you’ll be involved from board bring-up through certification and production handoff.
What you’ll do
- Design and implement production firmware for Nordic, STM32, Silicon Labs, ESP32, NXP, and similar MCU platforms
- Architect RTOS-based systems using FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or bare-metal as the project requires
- Implement wireless stacks and protocols including BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, Thread, Matter, and cellular
- Drive board bring-up, peripheral validation, and hardware/firmware integration debugging
- Implement secure boot, signed OTA, and production-grade security architecture
- Optimize firmware for low-power applications, including battery-powered IoT devices
- Lead code reviews, mentor junior engineers, and contribute to internal engineering standards
- Work directly with clients on technical scope, design decisions, and delivery milestones
Required qualifications
- 7+ years of professional firmware development experience
- Expert-level C and proficient C++
- Deep experience with at least two major MCU families (Nordic, ST, Silicon Labs, NXP, TI)
- Hands-on experience with RTOS development (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar)
- Strong debugging skills with JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, and oscilloscopes
- Track record of shipping production firmware on commercial products
- BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with secure boot and ECDSA signing pipelines
- BLE stack expertise (Nordic SoftDevice, Zephyr Bluetooth)
- Sub-GHz radio experience (ESB, proprietary protocols)
- Low-power design experience and current profiling
- AI/ML at the edge (TensorFlow Lite Micro, Edge Impulse)
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines for firmware (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
Junior Firmware Engineer
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Full-time Experience: 0–3 years
About the role
You’ll work alongside senior engineers on real client products from week one. We don’t ask you to know everything — we ask that you know your fundamentals, you’re curious, and you actually like the work. If you’ve built personal projects, contributed to open source, or done meaningful capstone work, we want to see it.
What you’ll do
- Write production firmware in C and C++ on Nordic, STM32, ESP32, and similar platforms
- Help with board bring-up, peripheral testing, and integration debugging
- Implement features within a larger firmware architecture under guidance from senior engineers
- Write and run unit tests, document your code, and participate in code reviews
- Learn the full embedded product lifecycle: spec → design → bring-up → certification → production
Required qualifications
- BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent
- Solid grasp of C programming and embedded fundamentals
- A portfolio of projects you’ve actually built: GitHub, personal hardware, school capstone, hackathon work
- Comfort with reading datasheets, schematics, and reference manuals
- Curiosity and willingness to learn from senior engineers
Preferred qualifications
- Internship or co-op experience in embedded systems
- Experience with at least one RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr)
- Hands-on experience with logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and JTAG debuggers
- Personal projects involving wireless protocols (BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa)
PCB Designer
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Full-time Experience: 4+ years
About the role
You’ll lay out boards from schematic capture to fab-ready output across a wide range of embedded products. Our work covers everything from simple 2-layer sensor boards to 12-layer high-speed designs with mixed-signal RF sections. You’ll work directly with hardware engineers, mechanical designers, and DFM/DFA partners.
What you’ll do
- Translate schematics into manufacturable PCB layouts in Altium Designer
- Handle high-speed signal routing including DDR, USB, Ethernet, and high-speed serial buses
- Lay out mixed-signal designs with proper analog/digital partitioning
- Design RF sections including impedance-matched traces, ground stitching, and antenna feeds
- Define and validate stack-ups, controlled impedance, and trace geometry with fab partners
- Generate fabrication and assembly outputs (Gerber, IPC-2581, ODB++, BOM, pick-and-place)
- Run DFM/DFA reviews with EMS partners domestically and overseas
- Work on rigid-flex and flex designs when project requires
Required qualifications
- 4+ years of professional PCB layout experience
- Expert proficiency in Altium Designer
- Strong understanding of IPC-2221, IPC-7351, IPC-A-600, and IPC-A-610 standards
- High-speed routing experience (length matching, impedance control, differential pairs)
- Experience with mixed-signal layouts and noise mitigation
- Ability to read schematics fluently and collaborate with hardware engineers
- Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in EE, electronics technology, or equivalent experience
Preferred qualifications
- RF layout experience (sub-6 GHz, 2.4/5 GHz, sub-GHz)
- Rigid-flex and flex circuit design
- Experience with HDI designs (microvias, blind/buried vias)
- Familiarity with KiCad or Cadence Allegro as a secondary tool
- IPC CID or CID+ certification
Embedded Software Engineer (Linux / Yocto)
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Full-time Experience: 5+ years
About the role
You’ll work on Linux-based embedded platforms — custom SOMs running i.MX, TI Sitara, Allwinner, and Rockchip silicon. Our Linux work spans industrial gateways, AI/edge compute platforms, medical devices, and high-performance IoT products. If you’ve done Yocto bring-up the hard way, you’ll be at home here.
What you’ll do
- Build and maintain Yocto-based Linux distributions for custom hardware
- Bring up new SOMs and custom carrier boards: U-Boot, kernel, device tree
- Develop and debug Linux kernel drivers for custom peripherals
- Implement userspace applications in C, C++, Python, or Go
- Optimize boot time, system performance, and resource usage
- Architect OTA update systems and secure boot pipelines
- Work directly with hardware engineers on bring-up and integration
Required qualifications
- 5+ years of Linux embedded development experience
- Strong proficiency in C and at least one of C++ / Python / Go
- Yocto Project experience (recipes, layers, BSP development)
- Hands-on with U-Boot and Linux kernel customization
- Experience writing or modifying device drivers
- Comfortable with debugging at the kernel level using JTAG, ftrace, and serial console
- BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with NXP i.MX, TI Sitara, or similar ARM SOC platforms
- Buildroot experience as a secondary build system
- Container runtime experience (Docker, Podman) on embedded targets
- Real-time Linux (PREEMPT_RT) experience
- Secure boot implementation on ARM platforms
Mechanical Engineer / SolidWorks Designer
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Full-time Experience: 3+ years
About the role
You’ll design enclosures, brackets, and full mechanical assemblies for embedded products that need to look good, work reliably, and pass certification. You’ll work closely with our hardware and PCB teams to ensure mechanical and electronic designs come together cleanly.
What you’ll do
- Design plastic and metal enclosures for embedded products from concept through production
- Create 3D models, 2D drawings, and complete assembly documentation in SolidWorks
- Coordinate DFM with injection molders, CNC shops, and sheet metal vendors
- Design for IP-rating, thermal management, EMI/RFI shielding, and acoustic performance
- Build prototypes using 3D printing (SLA, FDM, SLS) and validate fit, finish, and function
- Specify materials, surface finishes, and assembly methods
- Collaborate with industrial designers on aesthetic and ergonomic requirements
- Manage release-to-manufacturing handoff and engineering change orders
Required qualifications
- 3+ years of mechanical design experience for consumer or industrial electronics
- Strong proficiency in SolidWorks (parts, assemblies, drawings, simulation)
- Hands-on experience with injection molding design principles (draft, wall thickness, gating)
- Experience with sheet metal design and fabrication
- Understanding of GD&T and dimensional tolerancing
- BS in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent experience
Preferred qualifications
- Experience designing for IP65/IP67 sealing
- Thermal simulation experience (SolidWorks Flow, ANSYS)
- Familiarity with overseas tooling and manufacturing
- Industrial design background or strong design aesthetic
- Experience with KeyShot or other rendering tools
Manufacturing Engineer
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site, with travel to manufacturing partners) Type: Full-time Experience: 5+ years
About the role
You’ll bridge the gap between design and production. Gradient ships products to customers across consumer, medical, industrial, and defense markets, and you’ll be the engineer making sure those products can actually be built reliably, at quality, and at cost. You’ll work with our internal EMS facility in Buford, GA, and with overseas manufacturing partners.
What you’ll do
- Run DFM and DFA reviews on new product designs before release to manufacturing
- Develop test fixtures and end-of-line test procedures
- Coordinate with EMS partners on first-article inspection, pilot runs, and production scaling
- Drive yield analysis, root-cause investigations, and corrective actions
- Manage BOM, AVL, and component sourcing in coordination with supply chain
- Support overseas manufacturing in China, Mexico, and India
- Develop and maintain production documentation, work instructions, and quality plans
- Lead PPAP and production readiness reviews
Required qualifications
- 5+ years of manufacturing engineering experience with electronics products
- Strong understanding of SMT, PTH, and electromechanical assembly processes
- Experience with EMS coordination, both domestic and overseas
- Familiarity with IPC-A-610 acceptability standards
- Test fixture design and validation experience
- BS in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Electrical Engineering
Preferred qualifications
- Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification
- Experience with ISO 9001 or ISO 13485 quality systems
- Familiarity with NPI processes from prototype through mass production
- Mandarin or Spanish language skills for overseas manufacturing communication
Open Application — Interns and Co-ops
Location: Alpharetta, GA (on-site) Type: Internship / Co-op (Spring, Summer, Fall) Experience: Currently enrolled
About the role
We host interns and co-op students every semester in firmware, hardware, mechanical, RF, and manufacturing. Internships are paid and structured around real project work — you won’t be fetching coffee or running theoretical exercises. You’ll be sitting next to senior engineers and contributing to products that are going to market.
What you’ll do
- Work on real client deliverables under the mentorship of senior engineers
- Contribute to firmware, hardware, mechanical, or RF tasks depending on your discipline and interest
- Participate in code reviews, design reviews, and team meetings
- Build up a portfolio of work you can point to in future interviews
- Get exposure to the full embedded product lifecycle
Required qualifications
- Currently enrolled in BS or MS program in EE, CE, ME, CS, or related discipline
- Solid academic record (typically 3.0 GPA or higher)
- A portfolio or coursework that demonstrates hands-on technical aptitude
- Eagerness to learn and willingness to ask questions
- Available for 10+ weeks on-site in Alpharetta, GA
What we offer interns
- Competitive hourly pay
- Real engineering work with senior mentorship
- Lab access and hands-on tooling experience
- Strong potential for full-time conversion after graduation
How to apply
Send your resume to jobs@gradienttech.com with the role title in the subject line. Include links to GitHub, portfolio, or anything you’ve built. For engineering roles, what you’ve actually shipped matters more than what’s on your transcript.
We review every application personally. If you’re a good fit, you’ll hear from us within a week.
Our Clients
Our Locations
Headquarters
-
2475 Northwinds Pkwy,
Suite 200
Alpharetta, GA 30009 -
Toll free: +1-(866)-993-1715
US: +1-(678)-444-2355
Fax: +1-(877)-631-4336
sales@gradienttech.com
Development Center
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4625 Alexander Dr,
Suite 110
Alpharetta, GA 30022
Assembly/Manufacturing
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Gradient EMS and Fabrication Center
Buford, GA 30518
Our Clients
- Sirius XM
- Sonance
- Amazon Labs
- Cox Communications
- Kids II
- Newell Brands
Portfolio
Company
© 2025 Gradient Technologies