PCBA DFM Engineer for High-Volume AI Hardware

Etched.ai; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision packages

Housing subsidy

Relocation support

Wellness benefits

Daily lunch and dinner in the office

Unlimited compute budget

Job summary

Etched.ai is seeking a PCBA Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Engineer to drive manufacturability from design to production. You will partner with Electrical, PCB Layout, Mechanical, Thermal, Power, Test, and Manufacturing teams to enable scalable production and robust documentation.

The role requires strong PCBA manufacturing knowledge, disciplined documentation, and the ability to apply AI tools to improve engineering workflows for reliable, high-volume production in our San Jose operation.

Qualifications

• Degree in electrical, mechanical, manufacturing or materials engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience in PCBA DFM, manufacturing engineering or hardware NPI for production.
• Strong SMT knowledge including stencil design, solder paste printing, placement, reflow, inspection, and rework.
• Experience reviewing layouts, footprints, drawings, BOMs and release packages.
• Understanding high-density and fine-pitch assemblies and large BGA packages.

Responsibilities

• Own PCBA DFM reviews from design through production release.
• Translate findings into design changes and assign owners with deadlines.
• Develop and maintain DFM rules, checklists, and milestones.
• Keep tests, decisions, requirements, and lessons updated and retrievable.
• Support manufacturing readiness with design and process engineering.
• Collaborate with manufacturing partners on feedback and questions.
• Investigate issues in prototypes and NPIs and apply learnings to revisions.
• Use build data to reduce defects, rework, and scrap.
• Improve testability and inspection coverage with Test Eng.
• Apply AI to generate technical reports and automate workflows, ensuring accuracy.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Manufacturing knowledge

Documentation skills

AI tools

IPC/J-STD knowledge

Education

Engineering degree

Equivalent experience

Tools

Python

SQL

AOI

X-ray inspection

Job description

Etched.ai is seeking a PCBA Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Engineer to drive manufacturability from design to production. You will partner with Electrical, PCB Layout, Mechanical, Thermal, Power, Test, and Manufacturing teams to enable scalable production and robust documentation.

The role requires strong PCBA manufacturing knowledge, disciplined documentation, and the ability to apply AI tools to improve engineering workflows for reliable, high-volume production in our San Jose operation.