Founding Electrical Engineer

mLabs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

MLabs in San Francisco, CA, is seeking a Founding Electrical Engineer to design and build a first-of-its-kind autonomous circuit board platform. You will own custom electronics, firmware, and system integration in a highly hands-on founding role.

As a founding team member, you will tackle cross-disciplinary physical problems with autonomy, from schematic capture to fielded validation, in a demanding on-site environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on circuit design, bring-up, and debugging across custom boards.
• Experience with test rigs, sensing, actuation, and embedded firmware.
• Proven track record delivering hardware from concept to fielded product.
• Strong understanding of thermal dynamics, motor control, and packaging.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and bring up custom circuit boards.
• Develop electrical architecture for autonomous hardware.
• Build high-accuracy test fixtures and harnesses.
• Diagnose failures using benchtop instrumentation.
• Write firmware to drive and test subsystems.
• Own subsystems from architecture to fielded validation.

Skills

Custom Electronics

Autonomous Integration

Test & Measurement

Root Cause Debugging

Firmware Development

End-to-End Ownership

Electronics Design

Hardware Shipping

Benchtop Diagnostics

Thermal Dynamics

Coding Fundamentals

Education/Experience

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in EE/CS/ME/Physics

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic Analyzers

DAQs

Signal Generators

Power Supplies

Custom Test Fixtures

Job description

Location: San Francisco, United States (Office)

On-Site| Full-time

Compensation: $150K - $200K

We are hiring on behalf of our client. An elite, stealth-stage hardware company based in San Francisco who is seeking a Founding Electrical Engineer to help design and build a first-of-its-kind autonomous circuit board fabrication platform. The client's technology is engineered to transform raw ideas into finished, fully tested circuit boards in record time, unlocking rapid iteration for hardware innovators nationwide.

This role is ideal for a hands-on builder who thrives in high-ownership, fast-paced environments. The selected engineer will personally design, bring up, and debug critical electrical systems across custom circuit boards, test and measurement rigs, sensing, motion control, and embedded firmware.

As a founding team member, this engineer will tackle unsolved, cross-disciplinary physical problems with full autonomy, from schematic capture and benchtop debugging to deploying working systems on physical machines operating within micron-level tolerances.

Key Responsibilities

• Custom Electronics Design: Design, prototype, and bring up custom circuit boards for sensing, actuation, precision measurement, and system control.
• Autonomous Machine Integration: Develop robust electrical architecture for complex, autonomous hardware operating under stringent physical and thermal tolerances.
• Test & Measurement Systems: Build high-accuracy test fixtures, harnesses, instrumentation, and agentic harnesses to rigorously validate hardware performance.
• Root-Cause Debugging: Diagnose and resolve complex failures spanning electronics, firmware, software, and mechanical interactions using benchtop instrumentation.
• Firmware & Control Development: Write low-level software/firmware necessary to drive, test, and debug custom electrical and mechatronic subsystems.
• End-to-End Ownership: Take full technical ownership of subsystems—from early-stage architecture and schematic design to physical integration and fielded validation.

• Deep Electrical Engineering Expertise: Mastery of circuit design, signal integrity, power rails, noise reduction, and failure modes. Proven track record of personally designing, bringing up, and debugging circuit boards to verified metrics.
• Hardware Shipping Track Record: Background delivering hardware at a company that ships real, fielded products (e.g., robotics, aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial automation, semiconductor equipment, or advanced manufacturing).
• Benchtop Test & Diagnostic Skills: Extensive experience using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DAQs, signal generators, power supplies, and custom test fixtures to isolate issues at the bench.
• Systems & Mechanical Intuition: Solid understanding of how electronics behave in physical machines, including thermal dynamics, motor controls, vibration, sensors, grounding, and packaging.
• Strong Coding Fundamentals: Proficiency in writing firmware or code to control and debug hardware independently, built on strong fundamental programming concepts.
• Educational & Practical Background: Bachelor's or advanced degree in EE, CS, ME, Physics, or equivalent high-impact, hands-on engineering experience.
• Work Style & Location: 100% on-site in San Francisco, CA. Comfort with an intense, high-commitment founding environment (typically 6 days/week) built around extreme ownership and rapid iteration.

• Founding Equity & Influence: Meaningful early-stage equity stake and the opportunity to shape the core engineering culture and system architecture.
• High-Impact Scope: Direct ownership of critical subsystems with a clear trajectory toward leading an entire engineering function as the company scales.
• Cutting-Edge Lab & Equipment: Full access to state-of-the-art bench rigs, rapid prototyping tools, and advanced fabrication hardware.
• Competitive Compensation: Comprehensive base salary paired with high-upside founding equity.

Interview Process

1. Initial Screening: Preliminary discussion covering background, key engineering accomplishments, and alignment with high-ownership technical roles.
2. Technical Deep-Dive: In-depth technical interview focused on schematic design, circuit bring-up, real-world failure analysis, and measurement metrics from past shipped hardware.
3. On-Site Bench & Architecture Evaluation: Practical session at the San Francisco lab evaluating circuit design, benchtop debugging capability, and cross-system problem-solving.
4. Final Founding Team Conversation: Discussion with the leadership team covering mission alignment, work style, and equity/offer details.

Due to the high volume of applications we anticipate, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all candidates. If you do not hear back from us within 4 weeks of your application, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. We genuinely appreciate your interest and wish you the best in your job search.

Commitment to Equality and Accessibility

At MLabs, we are committed to offer equal opportunities to all candidates. We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats. Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all. If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the hiring process or you would like to see the job-advert in an accessible format please let us know at the earliest opportunity by emailing [e-mail].

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