pureLiFi, the Edinburgh company behind LiFi light-based wireless, went into administration on Monday after fourteen years and more than £35m of investment. All 42 staff were made redundant with immediate effect. That is a rare thing: a whole deep-tech engineering team, released at once, with no notice periods to work. GRW Talent is speaking to the team this week. This page is our read on who is available and who in Scotland is hiring for them.
Tell Katie the role and she will send the matching profiles the same day. Identities are held under reference until terms are agreed.
Grouped by discipline. Each profile carries a reference code; quote it when you get in touch. Years are total career experience. Everyone here was employed at pureLiFi until 1 September and is free to start immediately.
Three optical engineers, two at PhD level with single-photon detector experience and one hands-on laser and alignment specialist.
PhD silicon photonics, SPAD sensor characterisation at a semiconductor manufacturer, optical receiver design, promoted to senior this year
PhD and six-year postdoc in optical wireless, single-photon receivers, channel modelling, IEEE Transactions publications
Laser build and alignment, QKD module integration, opto-mechanical design, environmental test, three Scottish photonics firms
Five PhD-level wireless engineers. Two sit on IEEE 802.11 standards work, which is rare outside the chipset vendors.
PhD, CEng, vice-chair of an IEEE 802.11 task group, 46 papers, technology roadmap ownership
PHY design, MIMO, machine learning for comms, link and system-level simulation, 802.11bb standardisation, 20 papers
PhD digital comms, six years product R&D, APM project fundamentals
PhD optical wireless (Marie Curie network), test and integration, fibre-optic sensing field work
H2020 project technical lead, MATLAB testbeds, PHY definition for 802.11, nine years with one employer
Four embedded engineers, two senior. All work in C and C++ on Linux and RTOS targets, and all are open to remote.
Embedded C, networking protocols, set-top and broadcast platforms at two major operators
Embedded software at a broadcaster and a tier-one design services firm, promoted to senior this year
Linux kernel drivers, BSPs, device tree, FreeRTOS on ARM, industrial IoT, MSc robotics in progress
MSc embedded and IoT, two years product firmware, consultancy background
Eight hardware designers from lead level to graduate. The RF and FPGA leads are the scarcest, and both have defence and aerospace history.
PhD antenna arrays, microstrip and UWB design, CST, RF front-end and PCB, passive radar research
VHDL, multi-FPGA systems, complex PCB, patent holder, led firmware profession at a defence prime
Lead digital design at a diagnostics scale-up, product development for imaging instruments
Low-power microcontroller design and layout, defence and telecoms test equipment background
MEng distinction, four years product hardware, embedded systems
MEng distinction, Altium PCB and schematic design, board bring-up, product test
Creo and Fusion, thermal simulation, enclosure design, medical-device documentation
Test jig design, CFD thermal analysis, end-of-line test
The people who run a hardware company day to day. All Scotland-based and available immediately.
Fourteen years medical-device design consultancy, manufacturing engineering, seven years running hardware programmes
ISO quality systems, ERP and business systems, former head of quality at an energy scale-up
Electronics component buying, global procurement at a tier-one electronics manufacturer
IP and R&D partnerships at two medical-imaging companies, project management
Thirteen years running one technology office, semiconductor and NHS administration before that
Senior functional leads plus two marketing executives. The CFO and marketing director are retained-search level.
Serial SME CFO across avionics, photonics and software, investor relations, grant funding
Ten years building a deep-tech brand, founding member of an industry alliance, global communications
Fifteen years commercial in-house, contracts, IP, data protection, professional services and public sector
Defence business development and engineering management, defence prime and battery-systems background
Social and content marketing, four years at a payments brand, customer success
Social content and video, MSc international business in progress, part-time
Live engineering adverts within 40 miles of Edinburgh over the last 45 days, and the pay ranges employers are stating in them. This is the market these people are walking into, and the reason they will not be available for long.
| Discipline | Live adverts |
|---|---|
| Electronics hardware | 56 |
| Systems engineering | 47 |
| Test and validation | 35 |
| RF and antenna | 22 |
| Mechanical design | 19 |
| Embedded software | 17 |
| Research | 18 |
| Optics and photonics | 9 |
| FPGA and digital | 6 |
| Graduate engineering | 23 |
| Advertised pay | Range | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Optics and electro-optic systems | £44.5k to £68k | senior to principal grades at a defence prime |
| FPGA and firmware | £65k to £101k | senior, lead and hybrid-remote adverts |
| Embedded software | £45k to £70k | hybrid Edinburgh and remote UK adverts |
| RF, contract | up to £78 an hour | principal RF, twelve-month umbrella |
| Systems engineering | £59.5k to £92k | lead to chief systems engineer |
| Mechanical design | £45k to £75k | senior product and electro-mechanical design |
| Engineering project management | £60k to £85k | project engineering lead and manager |
Optics, RF, FPGA and senior embedded engineers are the scarcest skills in the central belt. The photonics and defence employers are already advertising for them. Expect the strongest profiles to be placed inside a fortnight.
Redundancy means nobody here is working three months' notice. A start date is the interview date plus your onboarding, not a quarter away.
A few of the engineers may hold Skilled Worker visas. If your organisation holds a sponsor licence, say so early. It moves you to the front of the queue for the research-grade people.
Send the role, or the advert link, and the reference codes that interest you. Katie will come back the same working day with the matching profiles and availability.