Founding Electrical Engineer

Join; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Join in San Francisco, CA is seeking a Founding Electrical Engineer to join an early-stage team building a fully autonomous PCB fabrication machine. You will own design from concept through prototyping and deployment.

You will work across electronics, robotics, sensing, motion control, firmware, and software, delivering robust hardware for production-ready systems in a hands-on atmosphere.

Qualifications

• Deep electrical engineering expertise essential with strong knowledge of circuits and failure modes.
• Hands-on experience designing, bringing up, and debugging circuit boards.
• Experience at hardware, robotics, or defense companies delivering production-ready products.
• Proficiency with test equipment: scopes, analyzers, power supplies, signal generators, and DAQ systems.
• Solid firmware/software fundamentals for hardware control, testing, and debugging.
• Senior/Staff-level experience in a leading hardware/robotics deep-tech company is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and bring up custom circuit boards for sensing, actuation, measurement, and control.
• Build high-accuracy test fixtures, harnesses, and instrumentation.
• Develop electrical systems for precision autonomous machines with micron-level tolerances.
• Debug complex failures across electronics, firmware, software, and mechanical systems.
• Build an agentic/AI harness for the PCB fabrication machine.
• Own subsystems end-to-end from schematics to fully working systems.

Skills

Deep Electrical Engineering

Hardware design

Prototyping and debugging

Firmware/Software fundamentals

Mechanical and systems intuition

Senior/Staff-level hardware experience

Education

Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Power supplies

Signal generators

Data acquisition systems

Custom test fixtures

Job description

Tasks

Location: San Francisco, USA - On-site
Employment: Full-time / Permanent
Industry: Robotics / Electronics / Hardware

About the Role

We are looking for a Founding Electrical Engineer to join an early-stage engineering team developing a fully autonomous PCB fabrication machine.

You will work across electronics, robotics, sensing, motion control, test & measurement, firmware, and software, taking systems from initial concepts through prototyping, debugging, and real-world deployment.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and bring up custom circuit boards for sensing, actuation, measurement, and control.
• Build high-accuracy test fixtures, harnesses, and instrumentation.
• Develop electrical systems for precision autonomous machines operating at micron-level tolerances.
• Debug complex failures across electronics, firmware, software, and mechanical systems.
• Build an agentic/AI harness for the PCB fabrication machine.
• Own subsystems end-to-end, from circuit schematics, system architecture, and test plans to fully working systems.

Requirements

• Deep Electrical Engineering expertise is essential, with strong knowledge of circuits, signals, and failure modes.
• Hands-on experience designing, bringing up, and debugging circuit boards, with the ability to discuss performance, accuracy, and limitations using specific technical details.
• Experience at a hardware, robotics, or defense company where products were built for production and real-world use.
• Strong experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, signal generators, data acquisition systems, and custom test fixtures.
• Strong mechanical and systems intuition, including motors, sensors, thermal management, vibration, tolerances, grounding, noise, and packaging.
• Solid firmware/software fundamentals, with the ability to write code for hardware control, testing, and debugging.
• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Senior/Staff-level experience at a leading hardware, robotics, or deep-tech company is highly preferred.

Benefits

Working Environment

• 100% on-site in San Francisco.
• Six days per week is considered normal, with long working days.
• Strong ownership of subsystems and problems, rather than individual tickets.
• A highly hands-on environment where rapid prototyping and testing are prioritized over lengthy design cycles.
• Early-stage startup environment requiring autonomy, creativity, and strong problem-solving skills.

This Role Is Ideal For You If:

• You are a highly hands-on Electrical Engineer who enjoys building and debugging hardware.
• You have experience working on real hardware, not just prototypes or demos.
• You can move comfortably between electronics, firmware, software, and mechanical systems.
• You enjoy taking a problem from a blank sheet of paper to a working machine.
• You want to be one of the early engineering team members building a completely new product.