{"id":1401328,"url":"https://alion.io/job/sportable-senior-electronics-engineer","title":"Senior Electronics Engineer","company":{"id":3788806,"name":"Sportable","domain":"sportable.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/sportable","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"BambooHR","truth_index":null},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Cape Town, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":24000,"max_usd":55000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":1198},"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-21T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-21","last_verified_at":"2026-10-01T16:58:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":42,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":42},"description":"Job Description\nAt Sportable, we're not just redefining the future of sports technology; we're creating it. As a leading sports data provider, we've pioneered world-first innovations such as our range of Smart Balls, and we continue to expand into new sports and new markets. Our products combine cutting-edge embedded systems, wireless technology, and cloud-based platforms.\nWe are looking for a Senior Electronics Engineerto design the electronics for our ball and player tag products, from architecture through to production. This is a hands-on, senior design engagement at the centre of our hardware roadmap.\nRole Overview\nYou will design the electronics for a new generation of instrumented ball and player tag, working alongside our Principal Hardware Engineer, who holds design authority, together with our Mechanical Technical Lead and our Embedded Firmware team.\nThis is a design engagement with genuinely hard constraints. The electronics live inside a ball and inside player tags and hit hard as a matter of normal use. Every cubic millimetre, every gram and every milliwatt is contested. If you like problems where power, radio, mass, mechanical envelope, manufacturability and certification are all pulling against each other at once, this is that job.\nScope\nThe engagement is structured based on hours worked. You provide the effort estimate for each phase, we accept it in writing, and that is the basis for that phase.\nKey Responsibilities\nArchitecture & DesignDesign the architecture for a sealed, wirelessly charged, battery-powered product: power and energy budget, charging approach, radio and antenna strategy, sensing and data-offload.\nDecompose product-level requirements into electronic requirements, and state the assumptions behind the decisions.\nLead schematic design and PCB layout for high-performance, low-power embedded systems (Altium).\n\nWireless & EMCLead on inductive charging, radio integration and electromagnetic compatibility, including designing the certification route in at concept stage rather than discovering it at the test house.\nIntegrate antenna solutions on real boards: work to vendor and simulation inputs, tune the match, and measure rather than assume.\n\nValidation & Bring-UpSupport bring-up of your own designs on site, and validate in the lab and in live field environments with real teams and real athletes.\nReport measured behaviour against the design intent, including where the board deviates from it.\n\nDesign Records & ReviewCapture design intent, the alternatives you considered, and why you rejected each one, so our team can extend the design without you. This is a deliverable, not a courtesy.\nTake part in design reviews and track findings through to verified closure in the released files.\n\nManufacturing & LifecycleDesign for manufacture and test from the start. Produce the fabrication and assembly pack and support the handover to our contract manufacturer.\nMaintain a BOM risk view: lifecycle status, lead times and second sources on critical parts.\n\nQualifications and Experience\nDegree in Electronic/Electrical Engineering or a related field.\n6+ yearsin electronics design for low-power, embedded MCU-based products.\nAt least two products personally taken from concept through to volume production.Not two prototypes. This is the requirement we weight most heavily.\nProven schematic design and PCB layout in Altium.\nMixed-signal design in a severely space, mass, power and cost constrained battery-powered product.\nStrong electronic debug and analysis skills, and the discipline to separate what you measured from what you expected.\nDesign-for-manufacture handover to a contract manufacturer, including the fab and assembly pack, done personally.\nNice-to-Have\nRF and microwave design experience up to X-band, including UWB (Qorvo, STM, NXP or equivalent), GNSS, Bluetooth or NFC.\nAntenna integration and matching on real hardware.\nA PCA that survives repeated high-acceleration impact, or an equivalent shock and vibration duty.\nNordic Semiconductor nRF52 / nRF53 / nRF54 series host design.\nHigh-rate IMU selection, calibration and data-offload architecture.\nCertification processes(CE, FCC, UKCA) and familiarity with CISPR 11 / EN 55011, FCC Part 15, EN 300 328, EN 302 065.\nRigid-flex, flex, or module and antenna-in-package integration.\nExperience in sports technology or other rugged, real-world embedded applications.\nWhy Work With Sportable?\nA route to a permanent positionif it suits both sides. Six months, then a permanent role designing world-first products.\nWork at the cutting edge of sports technology, on products that are changing how fans, players, and coaches experience the game.\nA hard, well-defined technical problemwith real constraints, a small team, and no layer between your engineering and the outcome.\nYour designs get tested and validated directly with elite athletes and teams.\nClear scope, defined gates and prompt decisions.\nDiversity Statement:\nSportable is a committed equal opportunities employer, and we welcome applications from disabled candidates, and those from minority ethnic backgrounds.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5101,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Sports"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-28T15:46:05Z"}],"liveness":{"score":27,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.485,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":41,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:18","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-01T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/sportable-senior-electronics-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/sportable-senior-electronics-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-02T02:23:18Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3179,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":1821,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-03T00:00:00Z"}}}