Senior Principal Engineer, Hardware Application Engineering - Board & System Design

Location: Santa Clara, CA, US
Work Model: Onsite (5 days per week)
Employment Type: Permanent
Function: Engineering / Architecture
Salary:$200,000- $266,400
 

The organization is a leading semiconductor and infrastructure technology company delivering advanced solutions for networking, connectivity, cloud computing, and AI-driven systems. Its Customer Solutions Group works directly with some of the world's largest data centre operators, cloud providers, and AI platform developers to enable next-generation infrastructure deployments.

The team serves as a critical technical partner between silicon engineering, hardware teams, customers, and manufacturing partners. Engineers combine deep expertise in hardware architecture, system integration, and product development to transform advanced semiconductor solutions into scalable, reliable, and production-ready platforms.

The organization is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer specializing in Board and System Hardware Design to serve as a senior technical authority supporting customer hardware platforms built around advanced networking and AI infrastructure solutions.

This role will focus on guiding complex hardware designs from early architecture through production deployment, ensuring systems are optimized for performance, reliability, manufacturability, and high-volume production.

The engineer will act as a key technical bridge between customer engineering teams, internal silicon teams, hardware engineering groups, and manufacturing partners. This is a hands-on individual contributor role requiring deep expertise in board architecture, PCB design, power delivery, thermal management, system bring-up, and productization of high-performance computing and networking platforms.

• Serve as the senior technical advisor for customer hardware teams designing advanced networking and AI infrastructure platforms.

• Lead hardware design reviews covering system architecture, schematics, PCB stack-ups, layouts, and implementation strategies.

• Identify design risks early and provide recommendations for robust, production-ready solutions.

• Define and support reference hardware designs for new semiconductor products in collaboration with silicon, packaging, and hardware engineering teams.

• Provide technical feedback from customer deployments to influence future silicon, package, power, and platform architecture decisions.

• Drive PCB stack-up strategy and material selection, including low-loss laminates, copper roughness, glass weave considerations, and advanced via structures.

• Own and support architecture, schematic reviews, layout guidance, and hardware bring-up activities for reference and evaluation platforms.

• Guide customers on power delivery architecture, including:

  • Power distribution network (PDN) design

  • Multi-rail sequencing

  • Decoupling strategies

  • Power tolerance analysis for high-current ASIC platforms

• Provide guidance on thermal architecture, mechanical integration, and cooling strategies including air, liquid, and immersion cooling solutions.

• Review signal integrity and power integrity considerations and support simulation activities where required.

• Drive design-for-reliability, manufacturability, and testability practices throughout the product lifecycle.

• Support ODM/CM partners during manufacturing transition and production ramp.

• Develop and deliver technical training covering hardware design methodologies, reference platforms, and productization best practices.

• Provide technical leadership for current and future high-speed SerDes-based systems.

• Lead hardware bring-up, debugging, root-cause analysis, and issue resolution during customer validation and production phases.

• Collaborate with silicon design, packaging, SI/PI, software, operations, and customer engineering teams.

• Provide technical input into product strategy and future platform development.

• Represent the organization in customer meetings, executive technical reviews, and industry forums.

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.

• 15+ years of experience in hardware design, development, and validation of high-speed networking or compute systems.

• 7+ years of focused experience in board and system design involving modern high-speed SerDes technologies (25G NRZ through 112G/224G PAM4).

• Proven experience owning complex hardware designs through the full lifecycle:

  • System architecture

  • Schematic development

  • PCB design guidance

  • Hardware bring-up

  • Production readiness

• Experience developing and delivering reference designs for customer or internal platform adoption.

• Strong expertise in PCB stack-up design, materials selection, and high-speed board implementation.

• Deep knowledge of power architecture for high-current ASIC platforms, including PDN design, sequencing, decoupling, and tolerance analysis.

• Experience with thermal design and mechanical integration for high-power networking or AI systems.

• Understanding of SI/PI principles with the ability to review simulations and perform targeted analysis.

• Hands-on experience with hardware validation, laboratory debugging, and root-cause analysis.

• Strong knowledge of high-speed interfaces including:

  • Ethernet

  • PCIe

  • DDR

  • Advanced SerDes architectures

  • Modern power delivery systems

• Understanding of design-for-reliability, manufacturability, and testability principles.

• Experience supporting customer-facing technical engagements.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence senior engineering teams and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Experience with Ethernet switching platforms, networking ASICs, or AI infrastructure architectures.

• Experience designing or reviewing systems deployed in large-scale data centre environments.

• Background in customer enablement and reference platform development.

• Familiarity with ODM/CM manufacturing processes, including DFM, DFT, qualification, and reliability testing.

• Experience with advanced cooling technologies for high-performance computing platforms.

• Familiarity with PCB and SI/PI design tools such as:

  • Cadence Allegro/Sigrity

  • Siemens Xpedition/HyperLynx

  • Equivalent industry tools

• Experience influencing product roadmaps through customer and field-driven technical insights.

As a senior technical leader, you will:

• Establish technical standards for board and system hardware design across strategic customer engagements.

• Serve as a trusted technical interface between customers, silicon teams, hardware engineering, and manufacturing partners.

• Mentor engineers and promote best practices in system design and productization.

• Influence next-generation hardware platforms and infrastructure solutions.

• Represent the organization's hardware expertise with customers, partners, and industry stakeholders.

• Support customer visits, ODM engagements, and laboratory activities as required.