LabVIEW Engineer

  • What is a LabVIEW Engineer?
  • Why the Engineer part is important..
  • Look for an LabVIEW Engineer that is also a Systems Engineer.

 

LabVIEW is a powerful tool, but as with all powerful tools, there is tremendous depth to it, requiring lots of study and experience to become fluent in it like you would expect a LabVIEW Engineer to be. An actual LabVIEW Engineer is someone that has climbed this learning curve to the point of fluency with LabVIEW. The Engineer part implies at least a BS degree in Engineering.

 

Why is the Engineer part important? The system frequently includes NI DAQ hardware, but may consist of bench-top instruments, and almost always includes one or more test fixtures. It is common for a system to include motors, load cells, hydraulics, valves, pressure and flow sensors, and similar actuators and sensors. Thus, having someone with solid engineer training, including a strong foundation in math and science, can add value while minimizing time invested in learning the application.

 

However, a much broader background and a systems-level perspective can be beneficial. Often such a person is referred to as a Systems Engineer. Besides being able to cover other engineering aspects beyond just being a LabVIEW Engineer, having an overall systems perspective adds even more value. By understanding the entire system, and the sorts of considerations that could be crucial at that level, a Systems Engineer can take the context into account and develop a better user interface and a more reliable and robust system overall than a LabVIEW Engineer without systems-level background.

 

So, looking for a LabVIEW Engineer is a good start, but make sure they have substantial systems-level understanding. We find that having a strong Physics background is a good foundation for systems engineering because they have some knowledge of every engineering field and know to avoid most pitfalls. That is why we look for strong physics and systems engineering backgrounds in any LabVIEW Engineer candidates we would hire. We discuss Systems Engineering in more depth in our Full System Integration with LabVIEW article.

 

 

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