Senior Staff Engineer, PCB Design (R5752)

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

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a Senior PCB Designer to translate schematics into manufacturable PCBA layouts for aircraft systems. You will collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing engineers across the design cycle, including stack-up decisions, constraint management, and generation of drawings.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in PCB layout for production hardware, strong IPC knowledge, and experience with Altium Designer and high-speed power electronics.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of PCB layout experience for production hardware.
• Experience with high-speed digital and RF layouts is a plus.
• Knowledge of IPC standards and DFM practices.

Responsibilities

• Create PCB layouts for complex digital, analog, RF, high-speed, and power electronics designs.
• Plan and manage PCB stack-ups with fabrication vendors.
• Interpret schematics and routing rules with electrical engineers.
• Collaborate with mechanical engineers for board form factor integration.
• Apply signal, power integrity, grounding, impedance control, and thermal/EMI best practices.
• Conduct design reviews to ensure manufacturability and reliability.
• Generate manufacturing docs (Gerber/ODB++ files, notes, drawings).
• Ensure designs meet supplier DFM requirements.

Skills

IPC standards

Impedance routing

Length matching

Signal integrity

Power integrity

Cross-disciplinary collab

Tools

Altium Designer

Scripting & automation

Simulation tools

Job description

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Job Description:

As a PCB Designer at Shield AI, you will be responsible for creating the layouts that support our aircraft. You’ll work closely with electrical, mechanical and manufacturing engineers to translate schematics and requirements into robust, manufacturable PCBA designs. You will be involved in all steps of the PCBA design process including stack-up design, constraint management, mechanical placement planning, generating drawings and manufacturing outputs.

What you'll do:

• Create PCB layouts for complex digital, analog, RF, high-speed, and power electronics designs.

• Plan and manage PCB stack-ups in collaboration with fabrication vendors and manufacturing engineers.

• Partner with electrical engineers to interpret schematics, routing rules, and design intent.

• Collaborate with mechanical engineers to ensure proper board form factor integration, connector positioning, placement constraints.

• Apply best practices for signal integrity, power integrity, grounding, impedance control, and thermal/EMI mitigation.

• Conduct design reviews and implement feedback to ensure manufacturability, reliability, and compliance with company standards.

• Generate and maintain manufacturing documentation, including Gerber/ODB++ files, fabrication and assembly notes and drawings.

• Work with manufacturing engineering to ensure designs meet supplier DFM requirements.

Required qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in PCB layout for production hardware (or equivalent combination of education and experience)

Preferred qualifications:

• Solid understanding of IPC standards (IPC-2221/2222, IPC-7351, etc.)

• Familiar with PCB materials and manufacturing process, and stack-up construction.

• Familiarity with controlled-impedance routing, differential pairs, length matching, and high-current power distribution.

• Experience with scripting and automation

• Experience with Altium Designer

• Experience using simulation tools to validate layout designs