Senior PCB Systems Engineer
Chaos Industries · San Diego, United States · 3mo ago
CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats.
CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com.
Role Overview:
We are seeking a highly skilled and analytical PCB Systems Engineer to lead the architectural definition, schematic design, and hardware integration of our next-generation electronic systems. In this role, you will bridge the gap between high-level system architecture and physical hardware reality. You will be responsible for translating complex system requirements into robust, reliable, and manufacturable circuit designs, taking ownership from initial concept through schematic capture, component selection, and initial board bring-up.
Responsibilities:
- Circuit Design & Architecture: Lead the electrical design of complex PCBs, including high-speed digital interfaces, precision analog circuits, and robust power distribution networks (PDNs).
- Schematic Capture: Own the schematic generation process using industry-standard EDA tools (e.g., KiCAD, Altium Designer, Cadence OrCAD/Allegro), ensuring rigorous adherence to design rules, signal integrity guidelines, and corporate standards.
- Component Selection & Lifecycle: Architect the Bill of Materials (BOM) by selecting critical components based on performance, power efficiency, cost, thermal constraints, and long-term supply chain viability.
- System Integration & Simulation: Perform SPICE simulations, power integrity modeling, and signal integrity analyses to validate circuit behavior prior to layout execution.
- Collaborative Layout Guidance: Partner closely with PCB Layout Engineers to provide detailed placement constraints, routing budgets, impedance profiles and stack-up requirements for high-density interconnect (HDI) and high-speed designs.
- Bring-up & Validation: Lead the hands-on lab testing, debugging, and initial bring-up of prototype assemblies using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and RF test equipment.
Minimum Requirements:
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
- Experience: 5+ years of proven experience in hardware development, specifically focused on board-level circuit design and schematic capture.
- EDA Proficiency: Advanced, expert-level proficiency in at least one major schematic capture tool (e.g.,KiCAD , Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, Mentor Graphics/Siemens Xpedition).
- Deep understanding of digital design principles and protocols (e.g., SPI, I2C, Ethernet/SGMII, PCI-E).
- Strong foundational knowledge in power electronics, including the design of switching regulators (buck/boost), linear regulators (LDOs), and filtering circuits.
- Experience designing for mixed-signal environments, ensuring proper isolation and low-noise performance for sensitive analog circuits.
- DFx Knowledge: Strong familiarity with Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and Design for Testing (DFT) methodologies.
Preferred Requirements:
- Experience with FPGA hardware integration, level-shifting, and high-pin-count BGA fan-out strategy.
- Basic scripting capability (Python, MATLAB) to automate design checks and Built-in self-test.
Why CHAOS?
- Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
- Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
- Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
- Team Growth: 250 employees and counting across 5 global offices
The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.
Recruiting Agencies: CHAOS Industries does not accept unsolicited resumes or outreach. Unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed or compensated.
#LI-onsite