Electrical Engineer; PCB Design

Company Overview

Second Order Effects started in 2016 as a services firm, taking on other companies’ hardest engineering problems from first principles. We grew into a solutions firm that designs and ships complete custom electronics and systems, including power electronics, RF, and control systems. We’ve completed over 250 projects for more than 100 clients. Our designs control rocket engines, manage satellite communications, instrument fusion reactors, and are enjoyed by consumers around the world.

We approach problems from first principles. We break challenges down to their most fundamental components, which is how we find solutions that hold up across industries, use cases, and engineering functions. We focus on solving the right problems and building the teams to take them on. Because we believe that training and empowering others yields a greater impact than focusing on developing any specific technology, we expect every single member of our team to participate in building up those around them.

In the past year, we’ve started taking our own concepts and spinning them out into separate companies that we believe will meet the emerging needs of our clients and the industry  work is concentrating in frontier technology, including space, fusion and fission energy, and advanced vehicles. We currently have two spinout companies in stealth that we’re working on.

Information about SOE’s mission, vision, and values can be found here.

Examples of the projects SOE has worked on can be found here.

As a PCB Designer, you will take ownership over the creation of high-performance circuit board layouts and work closely with interdisciplinary project teams to achieve the project goals and meet desired specifications. You will be responsible for not only producing high-quality layouts but also for anticipating risks, evaluating trade-offs, and driving design decisions that balance technical rigor, schedule, and business needs.

If you’re passionate about tackling mission‑critical challenges and working across multiple industries, this is your chance to make a lasting impact and grow in a dynamic environment.

• Own the design of PCB layouts from concept through manufacturing handoff for a variety of applications
• Ensure manufacturing readiness of boards by applying Design for Manufacturing (DFM) best practices, performing design rule checks (DRCs), and interfacing directly with PCB fabrication and assembly vendors to resolve issues
• Produce consistently high-quality layouts and footprints aligned with IPC standards and SOE best practices
• Identify opportunities to improve PCB design processes, libraries, and documentation, and share lessons learned to elevate team effectiveness and design quality
• Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and SI/PI engineers to optimize layouts for thermal, EMI, and mechanical integration
• Inspect incoming PCBAs, working with other engineers to understand and address any footprint- or layout-related issues, and synthesizing takeaways to feed back into our process and improve future designs

• Able to work 40 hours a week on‑site in El Segundo, California, or Redmond, Washington
• Eligible to work on ITAR projects
• Bachelor's Degree (Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Math, or related field) or equivalent experience
• 3+ years of applied experience with a demonstrated passion for engineering and technology development
• Excellent written and verbal technical communication skills; ability to explain technical concepts and their implications to non‑technical audiences
• Experience in any common ECAD tool, such as Altium Designer, KiCad, Cadence, PADS, EAGLE, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to translate requirements into manufacturable PCB layouts
• Understanding of PCB specifications and properties: stackup & materials, trace/space, via sizing, impedance, transmission lines, trace capacity & sizing, propagation delay, etc.
• Comfort working across multiple projects, adapting to changing requirements, and making informed decisions with incomplete information

• Experience in team-based design and build projects (e.g., Formula SAE, Solar…