Hardware System Design Engineer, Senior

Hardware System Design Engineer, Senior Staff

You will be part of a hardware design team that builds high-performance FPGA-based emulation platforms. You will own the board design process — schematic capture, PCB stack-up, PCB layout, power and signal integrity simulation, BOM management, and design verification testing — while driving system-level architecture in close partnership with customers and software/firmware teams. You will work cross-functionally to evaluate design trade-offs, direct lab technicians through system installation and debug, and partner with design, CAD, and manufacturing teams on prototyping, testing, and production support.

Candidates with broader scope and a track record of technical leadership may be considered at the Staff level, where they will additionally define system architecture across multiple boards/platforms, set design methodology and standards for the team, serve as the primary technical interface with customers, and mentor senior and junior engineers.

Location:

San Diego, CA (100% On-Site)

Employment Type:

Full-Time

Level: Senior or Staff — final level and title will be determined based on the selected candidate's experience and demonstrated scope of impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the board design lifecycle: schematic capture, PCB stack-up (26+ layers), PCB layout, BOM management, and design verification testing.
• Drive system-level architecture in collaboration with customers, software, and firmware development teams.
• Perform power and signal integrity simulations for 10 Gbps+ SERDES and high-speed I/O, from model extraction through simulation, reporting, and recommended design changes.
• Lead or support FPGA board design (Xilinx and/or Altera), including DDR3/DDR4/DDR5 discrete memory subsystems.
• Direct lab technicians on system installation, bring-up, and debug of boards and multi-board systems, including root-cause investigation of the most complex issues.
• Collaborate with mechanical, PCB layout, and manufacturing teams to ensure designs are optimized for signal integrity, manufacturability (DFM), and reliability.
• Author and maintain design documentation (HDDs, pinout tables, design review packages) to support cross-team alignment and program reviews.
• Serve as a key or primary technical point of contact with customers and cross-functional stakeholders on system architecture decisions and trade-offs.
• Support factory/production builds and new product introduction (NPI) activities as needed.

Required Qualifications & Experience

Core Board Design & Signal Integrity

• Experience with the board design process including schematic capture, PCB stack-up, PCB layout (26+ layers), BOM management, and design verification testing.
• Experience with FPGA board design (Xilinx and/or Altera).
• FPGA HDL coding experience.
• Experience with 10 Gbps or higher SERDES board designs.
• Experience performing power and signal integrity simulations for 10 Gbps+ signals, including various I/O analyses, using established methodologies from model extraction through simulation, reporting, and recommending design changes to address failing simulations.
• Experience with circuit and layout guidelines, high-speed design concepts, signal integrity, and transmission line theory.
• Experience with DDR3/DDR4/DDR5 discrete component board designs.
• System architecture design experience; candidates for the Staff level should have experience defining architecture across multiple boards/platforms.

Protocols, Tools & Test Equipment

• Familiarity with I2C, JTAG, UART, SPI, SD Card, PCIe, and eMMC protocols.
• Familiarity with test equipment including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers.
• Board- and system-level bring-up and debug experience.
• Basic Linux/Unix experience.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office, Mentor Graphics DxDesigner/Expedition, Vivado, Quartus, Hyper Lynx, Sigrity PowerSI/PowerDC, ADS, Ansys HFSS, and SPICE.

Collaboration & Professional Skills

• Proven ability to work with cross-functional teams (mechanical, PCB layout, manufacturing, software/firmware, program management) to deliver high-quality boards and systems on schedule.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present…