Electrical Engineer

Merge; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 210,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Merge Labs is seeking a Principal/Staff Electrical Engineer to own the architecture, design, validation, and productization of core electronics systems. You will work across mixed-signal design, power, high-speed digital interfaces, ASIC/FPGA integration, and automated validation workflows, replacing fragile bench setups with calibrated, reusable electronics and repeatable workflows.

You will collaborate with scientists and platform engineers to ensure data quality and reproducibility, manage

Qualifications

• Experience designing complex electronic systems from architecture to manufacturing transfer.
• Strong low-noise analog and high-speed-digital design fundamentals.
• Proficient in Python and C/C++ for hardware bring-up and automation.
• Collaborative across Mechanical, ASIC/FPGA, Firmware, Software/Platform, and scientists.
• Vendor/CM relationships and production release experience.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, simulate, lay out, bring up, and verify complex electronics integrating ASICs, FPGAs, MCUs, high-speed interfaces, analog, clocks, and power delivery.
• Own PCBAs and system-level electrical architecture including SI/PI, grounding, clocking, EMC/EMI, thermal considerations, interconnects, and DFM/DFT tradeoffs.
• Develop and deploy automated test/characterization infrastructure with custom hardware, firmware, and Python/C/C++ tooling for bring-up, verification, data capture, and manufacturing test.
• Build scientist-facing instrumentation—signal-conditioning modules, calibration fixtures, sensor interfaces, trigger/clock distribution, reference standards, DAQ boards.
• Define quantitative performance criteria (noise, gain, linearity, bandwidth, timing, drift, calibration) and document procedures for reproducibility.
• Manage vendor/CM relationships and define DFT strategies, inspection criteria, yield targets, and production release requirements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure electrical systems meet device performance and usability.
• Mentor engineers and establish best practices for design reviews, verification, and test automation.

Skills

Deep experience designing electronic …

Advanced mixed-signal expertise

Hands-on debugging

Python and C/C++ for hardware bring-up

Instrumentation mindset

Vendor/CM relationships

Empathy for scientists

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Spectrum analyzers

Logic analyzers

DFT tooling

Job description

Merge Labs is a frontier research lab with the mission of bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability, agency and experience. We’re pursuing this goal by developingfundamentally new approaches to brain-computer interfaces that interact with the brain at high bandwidth, integrate with advanced AI, and are ultimately safe and accessible for anyone to use.

About the Team

Merge is building the most advanced interface to the brain, capable of interacting with neurons at unprecedented scale and bandwidth. Delivering that capability in form factors that anyone would want to use will require engineering at the frontier of what’s possible. We’re assembling a team of exceptional builders across electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mixed-signal IC design, materials science, systems engineering, and engineering physics. We reason from fundamentals, move comfortably across disciplines, and build technology that scales. We prototype, test, and iterate in tight loops at unreasonable speed because the platform we build makes the science possible.

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal/Staff Electrical Engineer to own the architecture, design, validation, and productization of our core electronics systems—and to build the electrical instrumentation that makes our science faster and more reproducible. You will work across mixed-signal design, power, high-speed digital, ASIC/FPGA integration, automated test, and manufacturing transfer. In parallel, you will work directly with scientists and platform engineers to replace fragile bench setups with calibrated, reusable electronics, characterization rigs, trigger/clock systems, test fixtures, and automated validation workflows. The goal is not simply to help debug experiments; it is to engineer away recurring setup and measurement work so scientists get meaningful time back while confidence in the data improves. You will own the full electronics lifecycle, manage critical vendor and CM relationships, and set the standard for electrical engineering excellence at Merge.

In this role, you will:

• Architect, design, simulate, lay out, bring up, and verify complex electronics integrating custom ASICs, FPGAs, MCUs, high-speed digital interfaces, low-noise analog, clocks/triggers, and power delivery.
• Own critical PCBAs and system-level electrical architecture, including SI/PI, grounding, clocking, EMC/EMI, thermal/electrical interactions, interconnect, and DFM/DFT tradeoffs.
• Develop and deploy automated test and characterization infrastructure, including custom test hardware, integration firmware, and Python/C/C++ tooling for bring-up, verification, data capture, and manufacturing test.
• Build scientist-facing electronic instrumentation—signal-conditioning modules, calibration fixtures, sensor/actuator interfaces, trigger/clock distribution, reference standards, custom DAQ/test boards, and other reusable hardware that turns expert-dependent bench setups into repeatable workflows.
• Define quantitative performance and acceptance criteria for those systems, including noise, gain, linearity, bandwidth, dynamic range, timing skew/jitter, channel variation, drift, calibration, and measurement uncertainty as appropriate; validate with data and document procedures so another user can reproduce the result.
• Own the technical relationship with design vendors and PCBA assembly/test houses, defining DFT strategies, inspection/test criteria, yield targets, failure-analysis loops, and production release requirements.
• Collaborate closely with Mechanical, ASIC/FPGA, Firmware, Software/Platform, Clinical, and scientists to ensure electrical systems meet device-performance, measurement-quality, usability, and experimental requirements.
• Mentor engineers and establish best practices for design reviews, documentation, verification, test automation, and cross-functional hardware integration.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• Deep experience designing complex electronic systems and a track record of personally taking multiple hardware designs through architecture, board bring-up, debug, verification, and manufacturing transfer.
• Advanced mixed-signal expertise: strong low-noise analog and/or power fundamentals combined with high-speed digital integration, clocking, SI/PI, grounding, and dense-system judgment.
• Strong hands-on debugging instincts and comfort using oscilloscopes, spectrum/network analyzers, logic analyzers, electronic loads, precision sources/meters, and custom test setups to isolate root cause.
• Practical proficiency in Python and C/C++ for hardware bring-up, automated characterization, test control, and integration.
• A systems mindset toward instrumentation: you care about calibration, uncertainty, repeatability, observability, documentation, and whether the next scientist can trust and reproduce the measurement without you.
• Experience delivering manufacturable designs and working directly with vendors/CMs through release, test development, yield, and reliability issues.
• Empathy for scientists and other technical users; recurring bench requests make you want to build a durable instrument or platform rather than become the permanent human workaround.
• Bonus: experience with ultrasound, imaging, scientific instrumentation, lab automation, medical devices, implantables, or large-channel-count acquisition systems.

If you\'re excited about this role but don\'t meet every qualification, please apply. As we build, we\'re hiring for complementary strengths to form a high-impact team. For more information about hiring at Merge, please visit our Hiring FAQ

Merge Labs does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, family status, ancestry, citizenship, U.S. military (state and federal) and veteran status, or any other legally protected status. It is our intention that all applicants be given equal opportunity and that selection decisions are based on job related factors. We are an equal opportunity employer.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made by emailing [e-mail].