Hardware Engineer

Onsite Hardware Engineer 
£35,000 - £40,000 per anum
Southampton Mon - Fri onsite
12-month Fixed Term Contract 

We are recruiting an experienced Hardware Engineer (L2/3) to support critical infrastructure systems at a major customer site in Southampton. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on hardware diagnostics, maintenance and repair across a diverse range of enterprise and legacy platforms within a highly critical operational environment.
Working from the onsite workshop and across multiple machine rooms, you'll play a key role in maintaining the performance, reliability and availability of essential IT infrastructure — supporting systems that the customer's operations depend on.
What You'll Be Doing

Key Responsibilities

• Provide onsite L2/L3 hardware support across enterprise infrastructure and bespoke systems.
• Diagnose, repair and maintain IBM mainframes, tape systems, storage arrays and server platforms.
• Support legacy and modern equipment, including PCs, printers and custom-built systems.
• Apply electro-mechanical repair techniques and soldering skills to specialist equipment.
• Investigate and resolve complex hardware faults within a critical operational environment.
• Carry out preventative maintenance and contribute to improving system reliability.
• Build strong relationships with customer stakeholders and participate in technical meetings.
• Follow established processes while identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Maintain technical documentation and contribute to knowledge sharing.
• Work independently while collaborating with wider engineering and support teams.

Essential Experience

• Demonstrable hardware repair and maintenance experience within an enterprise environment.
• Strong fault-finding, diagnostic and troubleshooting skills.
• Experience supporting critical, operationally sensitive or high-availability environments.
• Knowledge of at least one of the following:
• IBM Mainframes: 9672, 2003, 2066 or 2096
• IBM Tape Systems: 3490, VTS or 3590
• EMC DASD storage
• STK DASD storage
• Strong communication and customer-facing skills.
• The ability to work independently and take ownership of technical issues.

Desirable Experience

• IBM pSeries servers.
• HP ProLiant servers.
• Dell or Sun server platforms.
• PC hardware repair and custom system builds.
• Dot matrix and laser printer support.
• Electro-mechanical repair.
• Soldering or component-level repair.
• AIX, HP-UX or related infrastructure knowledge.

Technology and Equipment: 

• IBM Mainframes: 9672, 2003, 2066 and 2096
• IBM Tape Systems: 3490, VTS and 3590
• EMC and STK DASD storage
• IBM pSeries servers
• HP ProLiant servers
• Dell and Sun servers
• Lenovo ThinkStation and IBM PS/2 devices
• Dell, HP, Compaq and Sun PCs
• Custom-built systems
• Dot matrix and laser printers

This opportunity would suit a practical, customer-focused engineer who enjoys diagnosing complex hardware faults and working across both legacy and modern technologies in a highly critical environment.