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Shelter Devices

At Shelter Devices, our mission is to solve the caregiving labor shortage and provide peace of mind for families. We are a pre-seed startup building a device to help older loved ones live more independently while staying safely connected to those who care for them.

# **Senior Electrical Engineer — Mixed-Signal PCBA**

Contract-to-hire · Part-time · Hybrid — San Francisco · $100–$150/hr

## **About the role**

We're looking for a senior contract electrical engineer to work on a new hardware device that uses 60-64GHz mmWave technology. You will own the board design of our sensor board which includes an antenna-on-package (AoP) mmWave radar transceiver IC. We need a rigorous mixed-signal generalist: someone who designs faithfully from vendor reference databases, sweats power integrity, and owns hardware from schematic through bring-up. If you've shipped a mmWave radar product and can carry RF sign-off yourself, you'd be an excellent candidate.

This is a contract-to-hire engagement designed for someone who enjoys the focus of a first board spin and wants the option to grow with the company. While we are looking for a reliable contractor for this initial phase, there is a clear path to convert to a full-time, founding role with equity for the right fit. As our first hardware hire, you will have significant technical ownership over the hardware platform from day one.

## **Engagement**

**Commitment**

10–20 hours/week initial 3 months, with intent to convert to a full-time role

**Location**

Hybrid — remote plus regular days at our SF workspace for bring-up and test

**Start**

As soon as possible

**Contract rate**

$100–$150 per hour — depending on depth of mmWave/AoP experience

**Structure**

1099 or corp-to-corp

## **What you'll do**

- **Own PCBA design and the radar carrier board end-to-end** — schematic capture, PCB layout, BOM, fab and assembly management, and bring-up for a board carrying the 60–64 GHz AoP radar sensor and its interfaces to our SBC.

- **Design the power architecture** — PMIC/LDO selection and sequencing for noise-sensitive radar rails, PDN design, and decoupling done properly.

- **Implement the SBC interfaces** — SPI/UART/I²C control and data paths today, designed with headroom for a high-bandwidth raw-data path (LVDS/MIPI-class) as our processing needs evolve.

- **Apply mmWave integration rules** from the vendor's reference designs — antenna keep-outs, grounding under the package, sensor placement and orientation, radome/enclosure constraints.

- **Run bring-up** — power-on, firmware handshake with SBCs, and functional radar validation using the vendor SDK and tooling.

- **Manage DFM and vendors** — stackup specs, fab quoting, assembly handoff, coupons, and simple test fixtures as we approach early production.

- **Build our hardware practice** — design reviews, BOM and revision hygiene, and test documentation that scales beyond you.

## **What we're looking for**

- A senior generalist: multiple PCBA products shipped end-to-end, ideally consumer or industrial embedded systems.

- Strong mixed-signal fundamentals — low-noise power design, power integrity, and controlled-impedance, length-matched high-speed digital routing.

- At least one shipped board with a high-bandwidth serial interface (LVDS, MIPI, USB 3, PCIe, or similar).

- The reference-design discipline: you follow vendor EVM databases and app notes faithfully, and you know when deviation is justified and when it isn't.

- Hands-on bring-up skills — scope, DMM, logic analyzer — and familiarity with debugging firmware

- DFM and CM/fab experience: you've specified stackups, quoted boards, and handed off assembly packages.

- Clear communication with non-EEs, and the autonomy to run hardware at an early-stage company.

- **Strongly preferred:** design-in of a packaged mmWave radar sensor on a shipped product — enough to own antenna keep-outs, radome decisions, and radiated-validation planning internally.

## **Nice to have**

- RF-adjacent product exposure — any shipped board with an antenna (BLE, Wi-Fi, UWB, GNSS)

- Embedded Linux fluency — device trees, kernel-adjacent debugging alongside software engineers.

- Altium or KiCad depth, plus familiarity with SI/PI analysis tools.

- Prior early-startup experience, or a strong desire to be employee #1 in hardware.

Apply for Senior Electrical Engineer at Shelter Devices

Senior Software Engineer

Seeking a senior contract electrical engineer for a part-time, contract-to-hire role focusing on mixed-signal PCBA design for a new hardware device using mmWave technology. The role involves significant technical ownership and offers a path to a full-time position.

Shelter Devices

Jobs

Fractional Senior Electrical Engineer — Mixed-Signal PCBA

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