Top Senior Hardware Engineer Jobs in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Design, manufacture, integrate, and validate autonomous hardware systems for heavy construction equipment. Responsibilities include component architecture, camera and optics design, vendor and manufacturing coordination, safety-focused verification and validation, hardware testing, and development of reusable sensor-data analysis and test-automation software. The hybrid role requires San Francisco office attendance at least three days weekly and up to 15% regional or national travel.

Lead failure analysis and root-cause corrective actions for networking hardware issues from field and factory sources. Analyze quality metrics, debug complex board- and system-level hardware, review new-product test reports, and drive quality improvements, change management, and multisourcing activities. Collaborate with engineering, manufacturing, operations, customer support, vendors, and customers. Provide technical leadership, document lessons learned, and mentor junior engineers.

Architect, source, build, integrate, characterize, and validate hardware systems for autonomous heavy machinery. The role defines hardware architecture, leads external vendor relationships and development programs, collaborates across engineering and safety teams, and ensures reliable performance in rugged environments. Responsibilities include autonomy sensing, compute, HMI, connectivity, machine-control interfaces, power and cooling, hardware testing, data analysis, and test automation using Python, C++, C, or Rust.

Lead end-to-end hardware development for next-generation communication modules, including schematics, PCB layouts, component libraries, prototypes, test fixtures, validation, compliance testing, and in-lab or field debugging. Collaborate with firmware, systems, and mechanical engineers, maintain design documentation and databases, lead design reviews, support field-failure investigations, mentor junior engineers, and improve design processes and tooling.

Lead hands-on hardware development across concept, prototyping, validation, manufacturing, and field performance. Responsibilities include PCB lifecycle ownership, ODM design review, regulatory testing, manufacturing coordination, vendor and component management, troubleshooting, test fixture support, technical documentation, and mentoring engineers. The role collaborates cross-functionally with product, software, QA, operations, and customer success teams while shaping the technical direction of agricultural sensing products.

Own the end-to-end development of Navi’s ruggedized cockpit edge-compute device, including electrical architecture, component selection, PCB design, enclosure integration, embedded firmware, validation, certification, fleet deployment, and cloud telemetry. Build systems for high-bandwidth real-time audio and flight-data streaming in demanding aviation environments, while collaborating with software and ML teams to support automated debriefing capabilities.

Designs and develops enterprise and small-business networking switches from architecture through production. Responsibilities include creating technical documentation, system block diagrams, schematics and layout reviews, hardware bring-up, troubleshooting, validation, yield improvement, supplier collaboration, and sustaining customer issue resolution. The role partners with ASIC suppliers, ODM/JDM manufacturers, software, product management, and cross-functional teams throughout new product introduction and commercialization.

Lead the mechanical, electrical, and systems design of robotics subsystems from prototype through production. Direct a small team of hardware engineers, make architecture decisions, integrate controls and sensors, manage BOMs and suppliers, reduce costs, and improve field reliability. The role requires regular travel between a San Francisco robotics facility and a West Texas deployment site to resolve failures and implement design fixes.

Lead hardware test and reliability efforts for autonomous drones: define and execute validation strategies from prototype to production, perform failure analysis, drive corrective actions, contribute design-for-reliability, and use telemetry and data (Python/SQL/AI) to develop prognostics and reliability specs.

Designs and validates electrical and electronic components, subsystems, integrated circuitry, and hardware solutions. Develops test plans covering tolerances, form, fit, function, shock, vibration, EMI, safety, reliability, thermal performance, and power. Performs feasibility, margin, validation, modeling, and empirical analyses; collaborates with internal and outsourced engineering partners; evaluates production reliability and supports prototype fabrication for reliable, cost-effective products.

Tests, validates, and troubleshoots next-generation cloud server hardware for performance, power, reliability, and quality. Develops test scripts, documents results, identifies defects, recommends improvements, and resolves hardware issues across engineering and manufacturing environments. Requires hands-on embedded systems debugging, Linux and scripting experience, and knowledge of server architecture, firmware, operating systems, networking, storage, and hardware acceleration technologies.

Owns hardware-level functional safety and system-level sensor safety for cameras, LiDAR, and radar. Responsibilities include reviewing supplier documentation for SEooC and AoU alignment, validating ASIL compliance, executing board-level FMEDA for FPGAs and microcontrollers, defining diagnostic monitoring requirements, and supporting SOTIF simulation and physical testing for perception edge cases. Requires an engineering degree, at least three years of hardware experience, and knowledge of ISO 26262 and SOTIF.

The role involves optimizing hardware support within a software stack for AI model deployment, collaborating with teams and hardware vendors to enhance performance and portability across platforms.

Develop and own compute and GPU server platforms from architecture through global deployment. Responsibilities include schematic and layout reviews, design for manufacturability, new product introduction, board and system bring-up, validation, debugging, firmware and BIOS feature management, technology qualification, and vendor coordination. The role requires hands-on server architecture, board-level design, Linux and scripting expertise, platform validation, and five-day-per-week presence in the Cambridge office.

Pipeline hiring for hardware engineers at all experience levels. Work includes circuit board design, schematic capture, component selection and prototype bring-up, hardware debug/testing and failure analysis, integration with firmware/software teams, and design for manufacturability with production handoff.

Lead planning and execution of reliability testing for wearable hardware. Develop and improve test methods, coordinate with contract manufacturers and labs, perform failure analysis and DFMEA, correlate lab tests with field data, produce test plans and reports, and partner with cross-functional teams to drive corrective actions and reliability improvements.

Lead on-site technical authority for datacenter hardware reliability and fleet health. Troubleshoot complex hardware failures, drive root cause analysis and corrective actions, coordinate with vendors and cloud providers, establish maintenance standards and runbooks, support new hardware introductions and spare parts strategy, mentor technicians, and analyze failure trends to improve reliability across large-scale GPU and server deployments.

Own hardware platform end-to-end: evaluate and qualify x86/ARM compute and networking components; bring up and tune Linux for real-time, safety-critical workloads; build fleet health, diagnostics, and observability tooling; implement platform security (Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, disk encryption); design and execute hardware validation campaigns and maintain hardware compatibility matrix.

Design and own an automated hardware test rig integrated with CI/CD to build, flash, run, and report tests for a wearable AI device. Implement connectivity and throughput stress tests, long-duration audio and battery/thermal characterization, API-level tests, dashboards with regression flags, diagnostic tooling, and automation-driven bug triage. Establish nightly and weekly runs and partner with firmware to define automated vs. manual coverage.

The Hardware Reliability Engineer will oversee reliability testing for Skip's wearable devices, manage FMEA, perform environmental stress testing, and lead root cause analyses to ensure product performance in real-world conditions.

The Hardware Systems Engineer will lead interdisciplinary projects on the development and optimization of Mill's food recycling technology, focusing on system performance and collaboration with various engineering teams.