Hardware Engineer

Salience Labs Ltd; Oxford; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Salience Labs Ltd in Oxford is seeking a Hardware Engineer to design and test the electronics powering our hybrid photonic-electronic systems. You will contribute to system design, PCB layout and lab bring-up with hands-on work in our Oxford office.

This early-team role requires 3+ years in high-speed digital or analogue design, strong diagnostic skills and the ability to work independently or in small multidisciplinary teams.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in high-speed digital or analogue design.
• Experience bringing up and testing new electronic systems.
• Strong diagnostic skills and hands-on rework ability.
• Ability to work independently and in small multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong technical, organisational and time management skills.
• Experience with PCB layout and working with external vendors.

Responsibilities

• Carry out hardware design from specification to schematic capture and selection.
• Bring up and test hardware with photonic interaction.
• Diagnose and resolve issues during bring-up and testing.
• Characterise electronic systems and their integration with photonics.
• Assess mechanical and thermal properties and impact on performance.
• Qualify electronic systems for production with external test houses.
• Collaborate with photonics, firmware and test teams to meet requirements.

Skills

High-speed digital design

High-speed analogue design

FPGA design

PCB layout

Hardware bring-up

Diagnostics

Team collaboration

Time management

Tools

Altium

Job description

About us

Salience Labs is building the optical infrastructure that will power the next generation of AI. Our photonic switching technology delivers the high-speed, ultra-low latency networking fabrics AI datacenters need and can’t get anywhere else. We’re a multi-disciplinary team of physicists, engineers, and machine learning specialists on a mission to remove the bottlenecks holding AI infrastructure back.

Job Overview

As a Hardware Engineer at Salience Labs, you will play a crucial role in designing and testing the electronics that power our hybrid photonic-electronic systems. As an early member of the team, you will contribute directly to our mission of bringing photonic products to high-performance compute systems, particularly those used for AI.

The role offers a varied mix of system design, PCB design, system bring-up and qualification, with a significant share of hands-on lab work at our Oxford office.

What you’ll be doing

• Carry out detailed hardware design, including specification, simulation, schematic capture (using Altium) and component selection. PCB layout experience is a strong advantage

• Bring up and test new hardware in the lab, focusing on the electronics and how they interact with photonic elements

• Diagnose and resolve issues during hardware bring-up and testing

• Characterise new electronic systems and their integration with photonic components

• Characterise the mechanical and thermal properties of our systems and their impact on photonic performance

• Qualify electronic systems for production, working with external test houses as needed

• Work closely with photonics, firmware and test colleagues to turn system requirements into hardware that works first time

What we’re looking for

• 3+ years of experience in high-speed digital or analogue design, including high-speed discrete analogue-to-digital conversion, high-performance FPGAs and high-speed digital interfaces (including Ethernet and DDR)

• 3+ years of experience bringing up and testing new electronic systems

• Strong diagnostic skills, including hands-on rework

• Comfort working both independently and within small, multidisciplinary teams

• Strong technical, organisational and time management skills, with the ability to translate requirements into successful hardware implementations

• Drive, motivation and flexibility to thrive in a fast-paced start-up environment

• Experience with PCB layout

• Experience working with external vendors for layout, manufacturing, assembly and qualification

• Experience characterising the mechanical and thermal properties of electronic systems

This is an "on -site" role with 4/5 days in the office required.