Application Engineer / Hardware / Customer-facing

Motion Recruitment; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Motion Recruitment is partnering with an innovative AI infrastructure company in the SF Bay Area to hire an Application Engineer – Hardware/Firmware for OEM integrations. You will bridge engineering and customers, designing, validating, and deploying hardware integration solutions from concept to production.

This highly customer-facing role requires hands-on work across hardware, firmware and product teams, with travel to customer sites and strong communication to lead technical discussions and

Qualifications

• 6+ years of hands-on hardware engineering and embedded firmware development experience.
• Experience owning hardware designs from concept through production.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science.
• Strong PCB-level hardware design knowledge including interface definition and bring-up.
• FPGA development experience including RTL design and firmware.
• Experience writing, modifying, and debugging embedded firmware.
• Understanding of embedded communication protocols (I2C, UART, PCIe, Ethernet).
• Ability to read, review, and troubleshoot schematics, layouts and test results.
• Excellent communication with customers and cross-functional teams.
• Willingness to travel for customer meetings and deployments.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product and Go-to-Market to evaluate customer hardware environments and proof-of-concept integrations.
• Design and implement hardware integration layers between embedded platforms and customer infrastructure.
• Develop, modify, and debug embedded firmware to support customer hardware integrations.
• Own customer integration projects from kickoff through design, validation, production release and deployment.
• Lead customer-facing technical discussions, design reviews, on-site visits, and workshops.
• Produce engineering documentation including validation plans, bring-up guides, installation docs and KPI tracking.
• Develop hardware design collateral covering schematics, layouts, power and thermal considerations.
• Create hardware bring-up documentation and support board validation activities.
• Track project risks, milestones, and KPIs while coordinating cross-functional resolutions.
• Collaborate with Hardware, Firmware, and Product teams during roadmap planning and sprints.
• Capture lessons learned and drive continuous product improvements.
• Build scalable processes, templates, and best practices for future integrations.
• Leverage AI tools to streamline engineering workflows and documentation.

Skills

Hardware engineering

Embedded firmware

Customer engagement

System bring-up

PCB design

Data center hardware

Education

Bachelor's degree in EE/CE/CS

Tools

FPGA development

VHDL/Verilog

I2C/UART/PCIe/Ethernet

Schematic review

Job description

Application Engineer – Hardware/Firmware (OEM Integrations)

We're partnering with an innovative, venture-backed AI infrastructure company that is building cutting-edge hardware solutions at the intersection of AI, embedded systems, and data center technology. They're looking for an experienced Application Engineer – Hardware/Firmware to serve as the technical bridge between engineering and customers, helping bring complex hardware integrations from concept through production.

This is a highly customer-facing, hands-on engineering role where you'll work closely with hardware, firmware, and product teams while partnering directly with enterprise customers to design, validate, and deploy hardware integration solutions.

Location: Candidates must be based in or around the San Francisco Bay Area. Regular travel to customer sites is required.

Please note: Unfortunately, visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product and Go-to-Market teams during pre-sales to evaluate customer hardware environments and develop proof-of-concept integrations
• Design and implement hardware integration layers between embedded platforms and customer infrastructure
• Develop, modify, and debug embedded firmware to support customer-specific hardware integrations
• Own customer integration projects from kickoff through design, validation, production release, and deployment
• Lead customer-facing technical discussions, design reviews, on-site visits, and engineering workshops
• Produce engineering documentation including design reviews, validation plans, bring-up guides, installation documentation, KPI tracking, and deployment artifacts
• Develop hardware design collateral covering schematics, layouts, power, signal integrity, thermal considerations, and interface requirements
• Create hardware bring-up documentation and support board validation activities
• Track project risks, hardware milestones, and engineering KPIs while coordinating cross-functional resolution efforts
• Partner with Hardware, Firmware, and Product teams during roadmap planning, sprint reviews, and design discussions
• Capture lessons learned from customer deployments and drive continuous product improvements
• Build scalable processes, templates, and best practices for future customer integrations
• Leverage AI tools and automation to streamline engineering workflows and documentation

Requirements

• 6+ years of hands-on hardware engineering and embedded firmware development experience
• Experience owning hardware designs from concept through production
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong PCB-level hardware design knowledge, including interface definition and system bring-up
• FPGA development experience including hardware design/RTL and firmware
• Experience writing, modifying, and debugging embedded firmware
• Strong understanding of embedded communication protocols such as I2C, UART, PCIe, and Ethernet
• Ability to read, review, and troubleshoot schematics, PCB layouts, and hardware test results
• Experience creating structured engineering documentation including validation plans, design reviews, and deployment procedures
• Excellent communication skills with experience working directly with customers and cross-functional engineering teams
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced startup environments with high ownership
• Experience with data center infrastructure, power electronics, or energy management hardware is highly preferred
• Willingness to travel for customer meetings, hardware validation, and deployment activities

Nice to Have

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or related discipline
• Experience with System-on-Module (SOM) platforms or metrology hardware
• Knowledge of power quality, thermal management, or power sequencing
• Embedded Linux, BSP bring-up, or Yocto experience
• Familiarity with ZeroMQ, Protobuf, gRPC, or REST APIs
• Previous experience as a Field Application Engineer, Systems Integration Engineer, or another customer-facing hardware engineering role