Head of Platform Electrical Engineering

About Etched

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Job Summary

Our Platform Team designs the server systems that bring our chips to life. We are seeking a Head of Platform Electrical & Validation Engineering to lead and scale a multidisciplinary team of electrical, validation, and system engineers responsible for module- and system-level design.

This leader will own both hands-on product design and the development of the design and validation infrastructure needed to ensure our servers are robust, manufacturable, and performant at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership & Team Building

  • Direct, mentor, and grow teams of electrical engineers, validation engineers, and system engineers.

  • Define organizational priorities, set technical standards, and drive cross-functional collaboration across silicon, mechanical, and software groups.
    

• Product & Module Design

  • Oversee server L6 & L10, and the Sohu module electrical design, from concept through production for Electrical & Validation engineers.

  • Guide schematic capture, PCB design, BOM, power delivery, signal integrity, and system integration.

  • Intense focus on the electrical PCB design for high power large ASIC design, and 112GHz+ signaling

• Validation & Reliability

  • Build and scale validation strategies for modules, boards, and full server systems.

  • Establish rigorous bring-up, debug, and test plans that accelerate time-to-market.

  • Partner with manufacturing ODM to align any design & validation expectations with volume production needs.
    

• Infrastructure & Process Development

  • Define and implement design engineering infrastructure, including simulation tools, validation frameworks, and lab capabilities.

  • Introduce best practices for design reviews, verification sign-off, and data-driven decision-making.

  • Ensure traceability and repeatability across engineering workflows.
    

• Cross-Functional Engagement

  • Collaborate with silicon architects, mechanical designers, and software/firmware teams to ensure system-level optimization.

  • Act as a key technical voice with vendors, ODMs, and manufacturing partners.

  • Provide executive-level updates on risks, milestones, and resource needs.
    

You may be a good fit if you have

• 10+ years of experience in electrical engineering, system validation, or platform/server design, with at least 5+ years in leadership roles.

• Proven track record of shipping complex server or hardware platforms at scale.

• Deep knowledge of board design, high-speed interconnects, power delivery, and system integration.

• Strong background in validation methodologies, test automation, and reliability engineering.

• Experience setting up and scaling design infrastructure (EDA tools, validation frameworks, labs).

• Exceptional leadership, communication, and collaboration skills.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Base Salary Compensation

• $225,000 - $275,000

Benefits

• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with generous premium coverage

• Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office

• Daily lunch and dinner in our office

• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.