Quality Engineer

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

Etched is hiring a Quality Engineer based in the US to ensure robust quality systems across our domestic contract manufacturing and integration partners. You will own quality assurance for our advanced AI hardware builds—driving inspection and test strategies, resolving systemic issues, and ensuring that every system leaving the factory meets Etched’s standards for performance and reliability.

This role will collaborate closely with Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain, and Test Engineering, serving as the bridge between Etched HQ and factory teams. It is ideal for someone who enjoys being hands-on in the factory, while also establishing the scalable quality processes needed to support high-volume production.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead quality assurance for US-based contract manufacturers and integrators (L6 to L10).

• Establish and maintain incoming, in-process, and outgoing inspection processes to ensure compliance with Etched standards.

• Partner with Test Engineering to define system-level test coverage, burn-in protocols, and reliability validation.

• Drive failure analysis, root-cause investigations, and corrective/preventive actions (8D, CAPA).

• Track, analyze, and report on quality metrics (yield, defect density, escapes, DPPM) to both engineering and operations stakeholders.

• Participate in ECO reviews, configuration changes, and NPI build reviews to enforce quality gates.

• Conduct supplier audits and ensure adherence to industry standards (ISO/AS, IPC).

• Collaborate with Manufacturing Operations to scale line capability, training, and documentation.

• Champion continuous improvement projects across yield, throughput, and defect reduction.

You may be a good fit if you have:

• 8+ years of PCBA related experience in quality engineering, supplier quality, or manufacturing quality roles

• Proven track record working with Tier 1 US-based contract manufacturers and/or ODMs.

• Familiarity with server assembly, burn-in, and system-level test workflows.

• Strong knowledge of quality tools and methodologies (SPC, FMEA, control plans, DOE).

• Excellent cross-functional communication skills; ability to drive alignment across engineering, ops, and suppliers.

• Comfortable working on-site at CM factories and resolving issues in real time.

Strong candidates may also have:

• Background in AI ASIC or high-performance compute hardware.

• Experience with L6 - L10 rack-level integration and validation.

• Exposure to thermal/power stress testing and system reliability engineering.

• Prior experience ramping high-complexity systems from NPI into MP.

• Engineering background in electrical, mechanical, or manufacturing domains.

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.