This is a senior role with leadership and hands on responsibilities
Company Overview
Coda Octopus designs, manufactures, sells and supports systems and software for the marine survey, construction and security industries, including real-time 3D sonars and GNSS/Inertial Navigation Systems.
We are currently recruiting for the position of Principal Engineer at our Edinburgh office. This is a full-time, office-based position.
Role Overview
The Principal Engineer will provide technical leadership for the development of advanced sonar systems, with particular focus on beamforming architectures, high-speed sensor electronics, FPGA/DSP processing, and embedded firmware implementation.
The role requires a strong background in hardware and firmware development for acoustic sensing systems and the ability to translate beamforming algorithms into efficient real-time implementations. The successful candidate will have an established track record of relevant prior experience. As such they will be required to lead architectural decisions, mentor engineering teams, and drive innovation across the sonar signal processing chain from sensor array through to processed outputs.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership
- Act as the technical authority for sonar electronics, firmware, and beamforming implementation.
- Lead the definition of hardware and firmware architectures for next-generation sonar systems.
- Provide technical oversight across the full development lifecycle, from concept through qualification and deployment.
- Mentor engineers across hardware, FPGA, embedded firmware, and test disciplines.
- Support customer engagement, design reviews, and technical proposal activities.
Hardware Development
- Architect high-performance sonar electronics.
- Lead the design of:
- Sensor interface electronics
- High-speed ADC and DAC systems
- Digital processing hardware
- Timing and synchronisation systems
- Data acquisition hardware
- Support hardware integration, qualification and verification activities.
- Ensure designs meet performance, environmental, power, reliability and manufacturability requirements.
Firmware Development
- Lead FPGA and embedded firmware development activities.
- Develop real-time processing implementations for beamforming and signal conditioning algorithms.
- Optimise resource utilisation, latency and throughput of FPGA-based processing systems.
- Define firmware architectures that support scalable and modular sonar platforms.
- Support integration with higher-level software systems.
Beamforming and Signal Processing
- Lead development of beamforming solutions for active and passive sonar applications.
- Define architectures for acoustic array data acquisition and processing.
- Optimise signal processing pipelines for real-time operation.
- Support implementation of:
- Conventional beamforming
- Digital beamforming
- Adaptive beamforming
- Array calibration techniques
- Detection and localisation processing
Requirements
Technical Skills
- Digital systems design and integration.
- Analogue signal design and integration.
- Experience with Linux-based embedded systems.
- Microcontroller design and programming.
- Embedded software development on Linux, including system configuration, networking and hardware integration.
- CUDA experience desirable.
Education
- Degree in Electronic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Physics, Acoustics or a related discipline.
- Master's degree or PhD desirable.
Experience
- Significant experience (typically 10+ years) developing sonar, radar, communications or sensor processing systems.
- Proven experience leading complex hardware and firmware development programmes.
- Experience implementing signal processing algorithms within FPGA, DSP or embedded environments.
- Experience taking products through design, integration, test and deployment phases.
Salary will be competitive and dependent on experience. Coda Octopus Products Ltd offers a competitive benefits package. This is office-based position and not remote.
For further information about Coda Octopus Products Ltd please visit our website at www.codaoctopus.com.
If you feel you have the necessary qualities and qualifications to join our team then please send your CV and covering letter to us explaining why this job is right for you no later than 6 July 2026.
Pay: £65,000.00-£75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company events
- Company pension
- Free parking
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Referral programme
- Sick pay
Education:
Experience:
- developing sonar, radar, communications or sensor systems: 10 years (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
