Founding Hardware Engineer

Clera; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Clera in San Francisco, CA seeks a hands-on hardware engineer to own the hardware journey from concept to scalable production. You will lead board design, manufacturing readiness, and quality assurance to deliver a reliable device.

You\'ll collaborate closely with the founding team to move prototypes into production, optimize power delivery and RF performance, and manage supplier and assembly processes for a consumer electronic product.

Qualifications

• Shipped PCBs in a real product, preferably wearables, IoT or consumer electronics.
• Experience taking a device from prototype to production or strong early-career fundamentals with AI tools.
• Hands-on PCB layout experience focusing on power, RF, size, reliability, and cost.
• Familiar with manufacturing requirements, test design, supplier management, and assembly processes.
• Ability to anticipate manufacturing and scaling challenges; domain expertise not required.

Responsibilities

• Iterate on PCB revisions optimizing layout, power delivery, RF performance, size, reliability, and cost.
• Move hardware from prototype to production addressing manufacturability, test strategy, supplier selection, and assembly logistics.
• Identify and communicate risks early to prevent costly mistakes.
• Own hardware quality and standards applied to every unit shipped.
• Collaborate with the founding team to build and ship the product.

Skills

PCB design

Production ramp

RF optimization

Power integrity

Cost optimization

DFM/Testing

Tools

Altium Designer

Job description

About the Role

Join a recently funded founding team as its first hardware engineer, taking a prototype device from concept through production. You will own the hardware journey, from board design and manufacturing through quality assurance, and help deliver a reliable product at scale. Your technical decisions will directly shape the product customers receive.

What You'll Do

• Iterate on PCB revisions, optimizing layout, power delivery, RF performance, size, reliability, and cost.

• Move hardware from prototype toward production by addressing design for manufacturability, test strategy, supplier selection, assembly logistics, and scaling challenges.

• Identify and communicate risks early, using practical experience to help prevent costly mistakes.

• Own hardware quality and the standards applied to every unit that ships.

• Work directly with the founding team to build and ship the product.

What We're Looking For

• Experience designing PCBs that have shipped in a real product, ideally in wearables, IoT, or consumer electronics.

• Experience taking a device from prototype to production, or strong early-career fundamentals and the ability to move quickly with AI tools.

• Hands-on skills in PCB layout and optimizing power, RF performance, size, reliability, and cost.

• Comfort with design for manufacturability, test design, supplier management, and assembly processes.

• Ability to anticipate and communicate manufacturing and scaling challenges; specific domain expertise is not required.

Compensation & Benefits

Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.