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.