Principal Engineer, Hardware Development Engineering

Principal Engineer, Hardware Development Engineering ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own full-cycle hardware design from architecture through schematic, layout, bring-up, validation, and qualification
• Drive form factor and PCB design for high-performance systems, including:
  • High-speed interfaces
  • Power delivery and integrity
  • Thermal and mechanical integration
• Work cross-functionally with ASIC, firmware, system architecture, and platform teams to optimize real-world AI workloads
• Develop and execute bring-up, validation, and debug strategies using advanced lab instrumentation
• Solve complex system challenges in:
  • Signal and power integrity
  • Performance tuning under real workloads
  • Reliability and manufacturability
• Lead debug, DOE, and root-cause analysis to push system performance and yield beyond conventional limits
• Partner with manufacturing and supply chain to transition cutting-edge designs into scalable products
• Mentor engineers and help define best practices for next-generation high-speed system design

• AI-first design – Work on infrastructure purpose-built for AI inference, not legacy systems
• Architectural impact – Influence system-level design decisions, not just component-level execution
• Cutting-edge challenges – Tackle problems where industry solutions are still evolving
• High visibility – Direct impact on strategic products and future technology direction
• End-to-end ownership – From concept to production

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering
• 5–10+ years of experience in high-performance hardware design (SSD or related systems)
• Strong background in high-speed digital design (PCIe Gen5/Gen6, DDR5, or similar)
• Experience with:
  • Schematic and PCB design (Cadence Allegro/OrCAD or equivalent)
  • System bring-up, validation, and debug
  • Power delivery and signal integrity considerations
• Proven ability to debug complex system-level issues and drive them to resolution
• Strong communication skills and ability to work across cross-functional teams

• Experience with next-generation interconnects (PCIe, CXL, switching architectures)
• Exposure to AI, data center, or high-performance compute platforms
• Familiarity with firmware/hardware interaction and system-level optimization
• Background in productization, manufacturing, or OEM enablement

• An employee’s pay position within the salary range may be based on several factors including but not limited to (1) relevant education; qualifications; certifications; and experience; (2) skills, ability, knowledge of the job; (3) performance, contribution and results; (4) geographic location; (5) shift; (6) internal and external equity; and (7) business and organizational needs.
• The salary range is what we believe to be the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and this range is only applicable for jobs to be performed in California, Colorado, New York or remote jobs that can be performed in California, Colorado and New York.
  
  This range may be modified in the future.
• You will be eligible to participate in Sandisk's Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan, which provides incentive awards based on Company and individual performance. Depending on your role and your performance, you may be eligible to participate in our annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which consists of restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents, pursuant to the terms of the LTI plan. Please note that not all roles are eligible to participate in the LTI program, and not all roles are eligible for equity under the LTI plan.
  
  RSU awards are also available to eligible new hires, subject to Sandisk's Standard Terms and Conditions for Restricted Stock Unit Awards.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid vacation time; paid sick leave; medical/dental/vision insurance; life, accident and disability insurance; tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts; employee assistance program; other voluntary benefit programs such as supplemental life and AD&D, legal plan, pet insurance, critical illness, accident and hospital…