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Embedded Systems, Firmware, FPGA, PLC and SCADA Engineering Recruitment

We place embedded, firmware, FPGA, PLC, SCADA, and BESS engineers who have shipped hardware that cannot fail. Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.

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97%

Retention Rate

90d

Replacement Guarantee

28+

Years Specialist Focus

40%

Briefs We Push Back On

FIRMWARE · EMBEDDED C/C++ · FPGA / VHDL · RTOS ENGINEERING · PLC / SCADA · PLC / SCADA ENGINEERING · BESS / POWER ELECTRONICS · MINING AUTOMATION

The Problem

Hiring engineers is risky. Pretending otherwise is negligent.

Most teams discover too late that they hired for interviews, not reality. We deliberately break candidates in controlled ways before your business does it for real.

Roles rejected outright when expectations are unrealistic
97% retention because we say no more than yes
Zero tolerance for untested engineers
Used by teams where mistakes have real consequences

Call us to evaluate the risk properly.

Overview

What we do

RunTime helps engineering teams avoid bad hires in complex, real world systems.

We Understand Engineering

We don't skim resumes. We interrogate competence. Our screening is grounded in how systems actually fail.

No Template Hiring

There are no interchangeable engineers. We align to your system, your risk profile, and your delivery pressure.

Signal Over Volume

We don't flood you with CVs. We apply targeted outreach, referrals, and a curated database.

We Own the Risk With You

We challenge job specs, pressure test candidates, and manage interviews with intent.

Active Roles

Open Positions

Embedded Software Engineer - Contract

Job Location: Melbourne, Victoria

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General Manager MV & HV - Data Centres

Job Location: Melbourne, Victoria

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Senior Process Development Engineer

Job Location: Sydney, New South Wales

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Cloud Security Engineer

Job Location: Melbourne, Victoria

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Test and Validation Engineer

Job Location: Melbourne, Victoria

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Frontend / UX Engineer

Job Location: Melbourne, Victoria

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Sectors We Cover

Industries

Medical

Medical

Transport

Transport

Industrial

Industrial

Audio/Video

Audio/Video

Space

Space

ML/CV

ML/CV

Agriculture

Agriculture

Energy

Energy

Telecommunications

Telecommunications

IoT

IoT

How It Works

Workflow

Phase	What Happens	Why It Matters
Kick off	Stakeholder briefing. Lock down job spec. Agree KPIs, timelines, and contacts.	Aligns everyone on goals and process, prevents scope creep later.
Market Research	Analyse competitors and tech stacks. Map market trends.	Sharpens the pitch so we attract exactly the right talent.
Candidate Sourcing	Search databases and inbound lists. Leverage networks, social channels, and referrals.	Builds a quality funnel with no resume blasts.
Shortlisting	Technical interviews. Skills tests.	Saves you time, only the top three candidates move forward.
Presentation and Interviews	Present endorsed candidates. Schedule interviews. Debrief both sides after each round.	Maintains momentum and candidate engagement throughout.
Offer Management	Reference checks. Draft and present offer. Confirm commitment level.	Reduces last minute surprises and renegotiations.
Post Hire Support	Regular check ins with client and new hire. Assist onboarding.	Protects your investment and boosts retention.

Social Proof

What Engineers and Clients Say

RunTime Recruitment

57 Google reviews

P

Payam Samavati

July 28, 2025

Had a great experience with Runtime. A big thank you to Aldwin, who was incredibly helpful, professional, and supportive throughout the whole process. Highly recommend!

P

Peter Tan

June 29, 2025

Lance proactively secured my opportunity and made the hiring process smooth with his professionalism, clear communication, and genuine support throughout. Highly recommend RunTime Recruitment.

D

Davey Tober

February 14, 2025

I had a great experience working with both Simon and Lance at Runtime. They were responsive, diligent, and took the time to truly understand my background and career goals.

M

Michael Chen

January 10, 2025

RunTime found me a senior firmware role in two weeks. Lance understood exactly what I was looking for technically and only sent me roles that were a genuine fit. No keyword matching nonsense.

S

Sarah Williams

December 5, 2024

As a hiring manager, RunTime saved us months of failed searching. They pushed back on our unrealistic spec and helped us define what we actually needed. Every candidate they sent was worth interviewing.

J

James Robertson

November 18, 2024

Best technical recruiter I have worked with. They actually understand embedded systems and asked me real engineering questions during screening. The role they placed me in was exactly right.

Engineering Insights

Latest Articles

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Passive NFC Field Diagnostics: Reading Error Logs and Extracting Telemetry from Fully Powered-Down Devices

Technical21 August 2026

Passive NFC Field Diagnostics: Reading Error Logs and Extracting Telemetry from Fully Powered-Down Devices

Every embedded engineer who has deployed hardware into harsh industrial, remote, or outdoor environments knows the dread of receiving a "bricked" return merchandise authorization (RMA) unit. The device arrives on the bench in a completely unresponsive state: the power supply rail is dead, the main lithium battery is depleted or chemically locked, status LEDs remain dark, and the primary microcontroller (MCU) refuses to boot. To make matters worse, modern industrial sensors, medical devices, smart meters, and automotive modules are frequently rated IP68 or fully encapsulated in potting compound. Diagnosing the failure using traditional methods—cracking open the sealed enclosure, soldering microscopic fly-wires to debug pads, and probing JTAG or UART interfaces—is destructive, labor-intensive, and invalidates the failure analysis context.

Designing for Disassembly: Engineering Modular Hardware to Meet Right-to-Repair Directives

Technical20 August 2026

Designing for Disassembly: Engineering Modular Hardware to Meet Right-to-Repair Directives

For decades, embedded hardware design has been driven by a push toward miniaturization, functional density, and manufacturing cost reduction. This trajectory gave rise to monolithic hardware architectures characterized by surface-mount technology (SMT), structural adhesives, glob-top potting, direct chip-on-board (COB) bonding, and integrated flex-rigid assemblies. While these methods maximized mechanical compactness and reduced bill-of-materials (BOM) costs for high-volume automated production, they rendered field servicing and component-level repair virtually impossible. Products became single-use electronic artifacts: upon the failure of a single ceramic capacitor, power MOSFET, or battery cell, the entire assembly was destined for landfill or energy-intensive recycling. For embedded systems engineers, this legislative momentum fundamentally changes the engineering brief. Compliance cannot be retrofitted via post-hoc service manuals or aftermarket adhesive solvents; it must be architected into the hardware and firmware from the earliest conceptual design phase. Design for Disassembly (DfD) has evolved from a sustainability concept into a core engineering requirement alongside Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Testability (DFT), and Design for EMC (DEMC). Mastering DfD requires embedded engineers to re-evaluate mechanical fastening strategies, PCB partitioning, high-density interconnect selection, thermal management, and firmware attestation architectures.

Privacy-Preserving Edge Personalization: Combining Local Training with Encrypted Inference

Technical18 August 2026

Privacy-Preserving Edge Personalization: Combining Local Training with Encrypted Inference

Deploying machine learning models to resource-constrained edge devices presents a fundamental engineering paradox: maximally personalized user experiences require continuous learning from private local data, yet running heavy neural networks on constrained hardware often forces offloading computations to untrusted external environments. In domains such as wearable health monitors, smart home automation, industrial sensing, and biometric authentication, sending raw sensor feeds to the cloud violates privacy regulations (such as GDPR, HIPAA, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act) and introduces unacceptable latency. Conversely, relying solely on static, pre-trained global models yields sub-optimal inference accuracy for non-stationary, user-specific data distributions.

Firmware CV Guide

You keep applying. You keep getting silence.

28 years reading firmware CVs. A $27 PDF guide that shows you exactly why most firmware CVs get closed in 8 seconds and how to fix yours today.

Get the Guide . $27

$27

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Market Intelligence

Engineering Market Pulse

Real embedded engineering job market data across Australia and the USA. Skills in demand, hiring by discipline, and location trends — updated twice monthly.

View Market Pulse

2,992

US Firmware Jobs

5,937

US Robotics Jobs

144

AU Robotics Jobs

24

AU Firmware Jobs

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Engineering recruitment insights, embedded systems trends, and career intelligence. No spam. No recruiterspeak.

Common Questions

FAQ

We specialise exclusively in deep tech hardware disciplines: embedded systems engineers, firmware engineers, FPGA engineers, DSP engineers, robotics engineers, control systems engineers, PLC and SCADA engineers, power electronics and BESS engineers, mining automation engineers, mechanical engineers, machine learning and edge AI engineers, hardware engineers, and electronics engineers. We do not place generalist software developers or IT professionals.