Hardware Senior Principal Engineer

Dell; Texas; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Dell's Infrastructure Solutions Group in Round Rock, Texas seeks a Senior Principal Engineer to lead the PCB layout of our high-density, high-speed multi-layer boards. You’ll own placement, routing, and release, define stackups and constraints, and partner with electrical, signal, power integrity, thermal, and mechanical engineers to translate architecture into fabrication drawings.

You’ll modernize the hardware development flow with AI-assisted placement and automation, establish standards,

Qualifications

• Lead PCB layout for high-density, high-speed boards.
• Define stackup, placement, routing, and constraints.
• Mentor designers and engineers across disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Own and lead layout from placement to release on enterprise compute platforms.
• Set and enforce Dell standards, IPC requirements, and DFM/DFT guidelines.
• Drive PCB layout processes, templates, checklists, and documentation.
• Lead modernization of hardware flow with AI and automation.
• Evaluate new eCAD tools and guide tool upgrades.

Skills

PCB Layout

Leadership

Design Reviews

Mentoring

Automation

AI-assisted design

Tools

Cadence Allegro PCB Designer

Cadence System Capture

Job description

Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) builds the products that power infrastructure, solutions, and data management our customers need most. Our teams design and develop the hardware and software that connect infrastructure, accelerate computational workloads, integrate across the stack, protect data continuity, and deliver the platforms, applications, and diagnostics our customers rely on every day at enterprise scale.

Some product builders follow the rules. Ours rewrite them.

Within ISG, innovation isn't just about creating new technology- it's about challenging assumptions and reimagining how work gets done. Engineers define intent, author precise specifications, and orchestrate AI agents that execute at speed and scale. AI is embedded throughout our development process, helping us move faster, learn quicker, and deliver greater impact. Yet the most important contribution remains uniquely human: deciding what to build, designing how it should work, and applying the judgment needed to earn our customers' trust. When your products power critical infrastructure around the world, that responsibility matters.

We move quickly toward the work that matters most. We reward experimentation, encourage bold thinking, and remove unnecessary barriers so great ideas can become reality faster. Our teams embrace a customer-first, first-to-market mindset, transforming rapid feedback into better products and better outcomes. We aren't looking for people who are content with the status quo- we look for builders who question it, improve it, and occasionally rewrite it.

If you're energized by solving complex systems challenges, excited to work alongside AI to amplify your impact, and motivated by the opportunity to shape what's next instead of simply maintaining what's been done before, you'll find your place here.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Join us as a Senior Principal Engineer - eCAD PCB Layout on our Core Hardware Electrical Engineering team in Round Rock, Texas to do the best work of your career and make a profound social impact.

What you’ll achieve

We are seeking a passionate and visionary Hardware Senior Principal Engineer to lead PCB layout and to define the eCAD design processes behind our electronic products. You will own our most complex, highest-speed board layouts in Cadence Allegro PCB Designer and System Capture, set the layout standards, workflows, and tooling the entire organization relies on, and lead the modernization of PCB layout and the broader hardware development flow through AI and agentic workflows.

This is a build-the-future role. Dell ISG is advancing PCB layout through a multi-stage automation framework - Library, Placement, Fan Out, Rules & Routing, Modem Readiness & Release - powered by leading industry design tools and bound together by Dell's cutting-edge AI. You will be the technical leader who takes this the rest of the way, partnering with electrical, mechanical, signal and power integrity, thermal, and manufacturing engineering, and with suppliers from concept through production - turning layout from a serialized, manual craft into a connected, model-driven, continuously validated discipline.

You will:

PCB Layout & Design Leadership

Own and lead the layout of our most complex, high-density, high-speed multi-layer PCBs - from placement and routing through fabrication and assembly release - on the platforms that define Dell's Enterprise AI compute, storage, and networking portfolio

Define stackup, placement, routing, and constraint strategies in partnership with electrical, signal and power integrity, thermal, and mechanical engineering, so that architectural intent translates fully intact all the way from specification to the fabrication drawing

Lead design reviews and hold the line on Dell standards, IPC requirements, and DFM, DFA, and DFT guidelines, always chasing the best answer to ensure maximum product performance and quality at optimized cost

Serve as the technical authority for PCB layout across the Core Hardware Electrical Engineering team, mentoring designers and engineers and codifying your expertise so that it scales far beyond any one person

Process Development & Modernization

Create and own the PCB layout processes, standards, checklists, templates, and documentation used across the organization - treating the workflow itself as a product you ship, measure, and improve

Lead the clean-sheet reimagination of the PCB layout and hardware development flow: find the bottlenecks, delete the steps that no longer earn their place, and replace manual execution with automation

Drive the multi-stage layout automation framework from Library through Release, including AI-assisted placement, constraint-driven fan out with HDI and via rules, agentic net scheduling, and automated review with automatic issue creation

Evaluate and deploy new eCAD tools, features, and methods; influence our tool providers' roadmaps through direct Dell feedback; and own tool upgrades and rollouts