Principal Hardware Design Engineer – Systems Engineering Principal Hardware Design Engineer – Systems Engineering to join the Central Engineering business group in Santa Clara, CA. The selected candidate will contribute to advanced printed circuit board (PCB) engineering initiatives supporting Automotive, Storage, Security, and Networking product groups. This role focuses heavily on high-speed signal integrity engineering, PCIe Gen5/Gen6 reference board design, power integrity analysis, validation board implementation, package collaboration, and cloud compute systems. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in high-speed PCB design, signal integrity analysis, SERDES technologies, PCIe protocols, power delivery systems, and board bring-up/debug activities within complex semiconductor environment.
Key Responsibilities:- Design high-speed reference boards for PCIe Gen5/Gen6 chip validation
- Capture schematics and support PCB layout implementation
- Work with PCB layout vendors and external design teams
- Select and implement board-level power schemes
- Design and validate low-voltage, high-current multi-phase SMPS systems
- Support enterprise server reference systems using PCIe Gen5 CEM sockets and EDSFFSignal Integrity & Power Integrity Engineering
- Establish Signal Integrity (SI) specifications and implementation guidelines
- Perform SI simulations and validation analysis
- Conduct Power Integrity (PI) simulations and analysis
- Analyze: Transmission lines
- Via structures
- High-speed connectors
- Complex BGA packages
- Collaborate with package design and SI engineering teams
- Support routing guidance for board layout teams
- Validation & Debug Support
- Participate in board bring-up and chip debug activities
- Support programming of various memory devices
- Work closely with RTL teams to implement hardware features and interfaces
- Assist with design validation and hardware characterization
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Collaborate with: SI EngineersRTL Teams
- Package Design TeamsPCB Layout Vendors
- External Customers
- Support customer implementations and reference designs
- Work with external vendors to resolve technical issues and complete board designs
Must-Have:
Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in: Electrical Engineering Computer Science Related Engineering Field5–10 years of related professional experience ORMaster's Degree / PhD with 3–5 years of related experience Experience as Lead Signal Integrity Engineer Strong understanding of: Electromagnetic (EM) fundamentals High-speed PCB design Signal Integrity concepts Power Integrity conceptsExperience with: High-speed differential pair designPCIe Gen4 / Gen5 / Gen6PAM-4 technologiesSERDES analysis (25 Gbps+)Reference board design for chip validation Strong knowledge of PCB design issues associated with high-speed systemsExperience with: Power controller design Multi-phase SMPSClock generation/distribution Component selection Experience using SI/EM tools including: SigritySI SoftHFSSHSPICEFamiliarity with: Real-Time ScopeVBATDRExperience with schematic capture and PCB layout tools Preferably Cadence Concept Strong communication and customer-facing skills
Preferred Qualifications:- Experience with: ADSQSI/QDCHyperlynxExperience running and summarizing Power Integrity simulations
- Experience collaborating with characterization teams
- Familiarity with cloud compute systemsExperience with mechanical design conceptsExperience supporting package design activities
- Experience working in semiconductor or hyperscale infrastructure environments
- Core SkillsSignal Integrity (SI)
- Power Integrity (PI)
- High-Speed PCB DesignPCIe Gen5 / Gen6SERDESPAM-4PCB Layout
- Reference Board DesignEM SimulationHFSSHSPICESigritySI SoftPower Delivery Systems
- Multi-Phase SMPSCadence ConceptTDRRTL Collaboration
- Hardware Validation
- Cloud Compute Systems
- Package DesignHigh-Speed Differential Pair Design
