Principal Electrical Engineer, Brain-Interface Systems

Merge; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Merge Labs is seeking a Principal/Staff Electrical Engineer to own the architecture, design, validation, and productization of core electronics systems. You will work across mixed-signal design, power, high-speed digital interfaces, ASIC/FPGA integration, and automated validation workflows, replacing fragile bench setups with calibrated, reusable electronics and repeatable workflows.

You will collaborate with scientists and platform engineers to ensure data quality and reproducibility, manage

Qualifications

• Experience designing complex electronic systems from architecture to manufacturing transfer.
• Strong low-noise analog and high-speed-digital design fundamentals.
• Proficient in Python and C/C++ for hardware bring-up and automation.
• Collaborative across Mechanical, ASIC/FPGA, Firmware, Software/Platform, and scientists.
• Vendor/CM relationships and production release experience.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, simulate, lay out, bring up, and verify complex electronics integrating ASICs, FPGAs, MCUs, high-speed interfaces, analog, clocks, and power delivery.
• Own PCBAs and system-level electrical architecture including SI/PI, grounding, clocking, EMC/EMI, thermal considerations, interconnects, and DFM/DFT tradeoffs.
• Develop and deploy automated test/characterization infrastructure with custom hardware, firmware, and Python/C/C++ tooling for bring-up, verification, data capture, and manufacturing test.
• Build scientist-facing instrumentation—signal-conditioning modules, calibration fixtures, sensor interfaces, trigger/clock distribution, reference standards, DAQ boards.
• Define quantitative performance criteria (noise, gain, linearity, bandwidth, timing, drift, calibration) and document procedures for reproducibility.
• Manage vendor/CM relationships and define DFT strategies, inspection criteria, yield targets, and production release requirements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure electrical systems meet device performance and usability.
• Mentor engineers and establish best practices for design reviews, verification, and test automation.

Skills

Deep experience designing electronic …

Advanced mixed-signal expertise

Hands-on debugging

Python and C/C++ for hardware bring-up

Instrumentation mindset

Vendor/CM relationships

Empathy for scientists

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Spectrum analyzers

Logic analyzers

DFT tooling

Job description

Merge Labs is seeking a Principal/Staff Electrical Engineer to own the architecture, design, validation, and productization of core electronics systems. You will work across mixed-signal design, power, high-speed digital interfaces, ASIC/FPGA integration, and automated validation workflows, replacing fragile bench setups with calibrated, reusable electronics and repeatable workflows.

You will collaborate with scientists and platform engineers to ensure data quality and reproducibility, manage