Staff Hardware Engineer, Optics

Location: Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Expected base pay: $108,220–$162,100 per annum, plus eligibility for bonus and equity plans.

Company

hirify.global develops semiconductor solutions and data-infrastructure technologies for enterprise, cloud, AI, and carrier architectures.

What you will do

• Own the electrical design of optical modules or defined subsystems, translating platform requirements into schematics, component selections, and PCB layout constraints.
• Bring up first silicon and boards, verifying power rails, sequencing, clocks, resets, register access, and electrical and optical interfaces.
• Define and measure performance limits for rail ripple, module power, BER, link margin, voltage, temperature, and operating conditions.
• Reproduce and isolate failures across hardware, firmware, and optics, then verify fixes with before-and-after measurements.
• Support pilot builds, correlate bench and production-test results, and hand off validated procedures and documentation to NPI and manufacturing.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field with 3–5 years of relevant hardware engineering experience; alternatively, a master’s degree or PhD with 2–3 years of relevant experience. Equivalent professional experience may replace a degree.
• Hands-on ownership of at least one PCB or electrical subsystem through schematic capture or layout review, first power-on, and bench validation.
• Experience with Cadence OrCAD, Allegro, or comparable ECAD tools.
• Experience measuring at least two board-level parameters, such as rail ripple, power-sequencing timing, clock frequency or jitter, or current draw.
• Ability to use oscilloscopes, programmable power supplies, multimeters, and logic analyzers as appropriate.
• Experience debugging at least one board-level control interface, such as I²C, SPI, or UART, using bus captures, register reads, or firmware logs.
• At least one example of taking a hardware issue from symptom to verified fix, including the bench setup, original measurement, corrective change, and result against a target.

Nice to have

• Hands-on bring-up or validation of optical transceivers or high-speed hardware with serial lanes operating at 25 Gb/s or faster.
• Experience with eye measurements, BER testing, or 100G- or 200G-per-lane PAM4.
• Python or similar scripting for instrument control, register access, or automated test and data collection.
• Familiarity with CMIS or optical module management.
• Experience applying signal and power integrity principles to PCB design, debugging thermal or EMI/EMC issues, or supporting optical Ethernet and data-center interconnect platforms.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time role with hands-on laboratory work and collaboration across DSP, photonics, firmware, NPI, and manufacturing engineering.
• Eligible for bonus and equity plans, including a new-hire equity grant and annual equity refreshers.
• Benefits include an employee stock purchase plan with a two-year lookback, family support programs, mental-health resources, and recognition and service awards.
• Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation during selection may contact hirify.global HR Helpdesk.
• Applicants must be eligible to access export-controlled technology and software under U.S. export-control laws; some applicants may require an export license review.
• AI tools, transcription apps, automated note-taking bots, and real-time answer generators are prohibited during interviews; unauthorized use results in disqualification.