Senior Hardware Design Engineer

fairchildimagingcom; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Fairchild Imaging, headquartered in San Jose, CA, seeks a Senior Hardware Design Engineer to lead the design of high-speed imaging platforms, CMOS image sensors, and X-ray camera systems.

The role emphasizes technical leadership, mentoring, and excellence in signal integrity, power delivery, and timing. You will collaborate across sensor, firmware, software, and applications teams to deliver robust hardware solutions.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of hardware design experience, including complex multilayer PCB design.
• Proven expertise designing high-speed digital systems and high-density PCBs.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, mentoring, or team lead experience.
• Strong hands-on experience with CMOS image sensor integration and board-level camera development.
• Experience with schematic capture and PCB layout tools such as Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, or equivalent.
• Hands-on lab debugging skills using oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, logic analyzers, and related instrumentation.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across hardware development programs for imaging and sensor-based products.
• Mentor and guide junior and mid-level hardware engineers in schematic design, PCB layout, debug methodologies, and engineering best practices.
• Lead hardware design reviews, architecture discussions, and cross-functional technical decision-making.
• Establish and promote engineering standards for high-speed PCB design, signal integrity, documentation, and validation.
• Support project planning, task prioritization, resource estimation, and execution tracking for hardware development activities.
• May directly manage a small team of hardware engineers, including goal setting and performance feedback.

Skills

High-speed design

Signal integrity

Sensor integration

System-level optimization

Schematic design

PCB layout

Debug methodologies

Mentoring

Technical leadership

Hardware reviews

Power integrity

Clocking design

EMI/EMC awareness

Education

BS/MS in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Altium Designer

Cadence Allegro

Job description

Fairchild Imaging, headquartered in San Jose, California is a specialty image sensor design and manufacturing company with deep experience in developing leading edge performance CMOS image sensors. Our portfolio of image sensors can be found in many high-performance imaging applications like space exploration, medical x-ray, sciences, quantum computing, machine vision, low light, and 360 situational awareness.

Senior Hardware Design Engineer - Imaging Systems and High-Speed Electronics

We are seeking an experienced Senior Hardware Design Engineer to lead the design and development of advanced PCB-based imaging platforms for next-generation CMOS image sensors , board-level cameras, and X-ray camera systems. This role requires deep expertise in high-speed digital hardware design, signal integrity, sensor integration, and system-level optimization for imaging performance and interface interoperability.

In addition to hands-on technical leadership, this role may include responsibility for mentoring engineers, driving technical direction across projects, and contributing to team growth and engineering excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Team Development

Provide technical leadership across hardware development programs for imaging and sensor-based products.

Mentor and guide junior and mid-level hardware engineers in schematic design, PCB layout, debug methodologies, and engineering best practices.

Lead hardware design reviews, architecture discussions, and cross-functional technical decision-making.

Establish and promote engineering standards for high-speed PCB design, signal integrity, documentation, and validation.

Support project planning, task prioritization, resource estimation, and execution tracking for hardware development activities.

May directly manage a small team of hardware engineers, including:

• goal setting and performance feedback,
• career development and coaching,
• hiring and onboarding support.

Board-Level Camera and CMOS Image Sensor Platforms

Architect, design, and validate high-performance PCBs for board-level camera systems supporting state-of-the-art CMOS image sensors.

Develop hardware platforms for:

• image sensor bring-up and debugging,
• electrical and optical characterization,
• internal evaluation platforms,
• customer demonstration systems.

Design interfaces and interconnects for high-speed sensor communication, including:

• SLVS/SLVS-EC
• MIPI CSI-2 / D-PHY / C-PHY
• LVDS and other high-speed serial interfaces.

Collaborate with sensor, firmware, software, and applications teams to ensure successful sensor integration and system functionality.

Optimize board architecture, power delivery, grounding, clocking, and layout to maximize sensor performance and minimize electrical noise.

Evaluate and mitigate hardware design impacts on end-user image quality, including:

• noise floor,
• fixed pattern noise,
• EMI/EMC coupling,
• timing integrity,
• power integrity artifacts.

X-ray Camera Electronics

Design and develop hardware platforms for X-ray camera systems integrating image sensors, detector electronics, and high-speed data interfaces.

Architect PCB solutions for sensor interface, power management, control electronics, and data acquisition subsystems.

Lead hardware development focused on robust USB-C interoperability, including:

• USB-C orientation support,
• enumeration and configuration reliability,
• sustained high-bandwidth streaming performance,
• cable and host interoperability robustness.

Analyze and debug signal integrity challenges across USB-C and other high-speed interfaces in demanding imaging applications.

Signal Integrity and Hardware Excellence

Serve as subject matter expert in PCB design for high-speed/high-density electronics.

Perform and guide best practices for:

• signal integrity analysis,
• impedance control,
• differential pair routing,
• return path management,
• power integrity optimization.

Drive design reviews, schematic reviews, layout reviews, and hardware validation plans.

Support prototype bring-up, debug, failure analysis, and design iteration.

Required Qualifications

BS/MS in Electrical Engineering or related field.

8+ years of hardware design experience, including complex multilayer PCB design.

Proven expertise designing high-speed digital systems and high-density PCBs.

Demonstrated technical leadership, mentoring, or team lead experience.

Strong hands-on experience with CMOS image sensor integration and board-level camera development.

Experience with schematic capture and PCB layout tools such as Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, or equivalent.

Hands-on lab debugging skills using oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, logic analyzers, and related instrumentation.

Preferred Qualifications

Prior direct people management experience.

Experience with X-ray imaging systems or medical/industrial imaging electronics.

Familiarity with detector electronics, analog front ends, and low-noise sensor systems.

Experience supportin