Cold-Plate Thermal Manufacturing Engineer

Etched; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision packages

Housing subsidy for San Jose living

Relocation support for San Jose (Sant?

Wellness benefits

Daily lunch and dinner in office

Unlimited compute budget

Job summary

Etched in San Jose, CA seeks a Thermal Manufacturing Engineer to own thermal management manufacturing processes for silicon-to-system products, focusing on liquid cooling cold plates. You will work with CM partners and internal teams to ensure high performance, quality, and reliability for frontier AI hardware.

You will lead process qualification, PFMEA, and first-article inspection, and drive continuous improvement across yield, cycle time, and cost per unit.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering or thermal systems manufacturing.
• Experience with liquid cold plates or heat exchangers.
• Knowledge of aluminum and copper alloys and brazing.
• Experience qualifying cold plate manufacturers and running process capability studies.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end manufacturing engineering for thermal components and assemblies (cold plates & manifolds) from NPI through mass production.
• Develop and qualify cold plate fabrication processes (skiving, vacuum brazing, friction stir welding, diffusion bonding, gun drilling, extrusion-based channels).
• Define process parameters, controls, and acceptance criteria; establish capability benchmarks (Cpk, yield, leak rate, flatness, pressure drop).
• Lead DFx collaboration with design teams to optimize liquid cooling system designs.
• Lead PFMEA, control plans, and process validation documentation at CM/supplier sites.
• Drive root cause analysis and corrective action for manufacturing defects (leaks, warpage, bonding issues).
• Evaluate new suppliers and manufacturing technologies for cold plates and thermal interface materials.
• Define and monitor KPIs: yield, leak rate, cycle time, rework, cost per unit.

Skills

Manufacturing engineering

Thermal systems

Liquid cooling

DFx

Process capability

Root cause analysis

Contract manufacturers

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

PFMEA

Control plans

First-article inspection

Job description

Etched in San Jose, CA seeks a Thermal Manufacturing Engineer to own thermal management manufacturing processes for silicon-to-system products, focusing on liquid cooling cold plates. You will work with CM partners and internal teams to ensure high performance, quality, and reliability for frontier AI hardware.

You will lead process qualification, PFMEA, and first-article inspection, and drive continuous improvement across yield, cycle time, and cost per unit.