Senior Electrical Engineer - Compute Hardware

Applied Intuition Applied Intuition · Robotics · Sunnyvale, CA · Compute Hardware

This role is for a Senior Electrical Engineer focused on designing compute hardware for electric and autonomous vehicles. Responsibilities include designing electrical schematics, guiding PCB layout, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and validating designs. The role requires significant experience in hardware design, digital interfaces, and lab tools.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design electrical schematics for automotive, off-road, and defense (optional) applications, incorporating SoCs/MCUs, power (SMPS, Linear), memory components (eMMC, DDR, NVMe), and peripherals from concept to production.
  2. Design boards that use high & low speed digital interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, USB, PCIe, MIPI, DP, Ethernet, etc), and automotive interfaces such as LIN, CAN, Flexray. Guide and oversee PCB layout, ensuring it meets DFx standards and adheres to performance, cost, mechanical, thermal, and reliability constraints.
  3. Create detailed component block diagrams and engage with PCB/PCBA vendors for fabrication and assembly.
  4. Collaborate with system, firmware, software, and integration teams to ensure successful bring-up and validation of the platform.
  5. Develop and execute test plans to validate design performance and document results.

Skills

Required

  • BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering
  • At least 5 years of hands-on hardware design experience
  • strong grasp of digital design and interfaces, including PCIe Gen 3.0/4.0/5.0, Ethernet 1G-T/T1 and 10G-T1, DDR, LPDDR, I2C, SPI, eMMC, USB, UART, and GMSL
  • Proficient in schematic capture and layout
  • Skilled in using lab tools such as bench power supplies, multimeters, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and network analyzers
  • In-depth understanding of PCB manufacturing, product delivery, and extensive experience in testing, validation, and troubleshooting of electrical systems
  • Excellent technical writing skills

Nice to have

  • Prior experience building automotive, robotics, off-road, defense, or other real-time hardware systems
  • Prior experience designing and building prototype vehicles or compute hardware platforms
  • Prior experience with high-volume production of hardware products
  • Prior experience building real-time HW systems with safety constraints
  • Experience with Formula SAE / Formula Electric or similar hands-on engineering programs
  • Prior experience with Altium Designer
  • Experience designing circuits that drive cameras and/or displays

What the JD emphasized

  • at least 5 years of hands-on hardware design experience
  • strong grasp of digital design and interfaces
  • Proficient in schematic capture and layout
  • Skilled in using lab tools
  • In-depth understanding of PCB manufacturing, product delivery, and extensive experience in testing, validation, and troubleshooting of electrical systems