PCB Designer

About the role

As a PCB Designer, you will take ownership over the creation of high-performance circuit board layouts and work closely with interdisciplinary project teams to achieve the project goals and meet desired specifications. You will be responsible for not only producing high-quality layouts but also for anticipating risks, evaluating trade-offs, and driving design decisions that balance technical rigor, schedule, and business needs. If you’re passionate about tackling mission-critical challenges and working across multiple industries, this is your chance to make a lasting impact and grow in a dynamic environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the design of PCB layouts from concept through manufacturing handoff for a variety of applications
• Ensure manufacturing readiness of boards by applying Design for Manufacturing (DFM) best practices, performing design rule checks (DRCs), and interfacing directly with PCB fabrication and assembly vendors to resolve issues
• Produce consistently high-quality layouts and footprints aligned with IPC standards and internal best practices
• Identify opportunities to improve PCB design processes, libraries, and documentation, and share lessons learned to elevate team effectiveness and design quality
• Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and SI/PI engineers to optimize layouts for thermal, EMI, and mechanical integration
• Inspect incoming PCBAs, working with other engineers to understand and address any footprint- or layout-related issues, and synthesizing takeaways to feed back into our process and improve future designs

Minimum Requirements

• Able to work 40 hours a week on-site in El Segundo, California, or Redmond, Washington
• Eligible to work on ITAR and EAR projects
• Bachelor's Degree (Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Math, or related field) or equivalent experience
• 3+ years of applied experience with a demonstrated passion for engineering and technology development
• Excellent written and verbal technical communication skills; ability to explain technical concepts and their implications to non-technical audiences
• Experience in any common ECAD tool, such as Altium Designer, KiCad, Cadence, PADS, EAGLE, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to translate requirements into manufacturable PCB layouts
• Understanding of PCB specifications and properties: stackup & materials, trace/space, via sizing, impedance, transmission lines, trace capacity & sizing, propagation delay, etc.
• Comfort working across multiple projects, adapting to changing requirements, and making informed decisions with incomplete information

Preferred Requirements

• Experience in team-based design and build projects (e.g., Formula SAE, Solar Car, CubeSat, Rover Challenge, etc.)
• End-to-end electronics design experience: taking designs from requirements generation through schematic, layout, fabrication, and hardware bringup
• Knowledge of PCB fabrication and assembly process, design for manufacture and design for assembly (DFM / DFA), familiarity with IPC and/or JEDEC standards
• Experience interfacing with PCB and assembly vendors to have designs fabricated
• Large-format or high-density or high-layer-count PCB design experience, preferably for aerospace, automotive, medical, or other high-reliability applications
• Expertise with Altium Designer or KiCad
• Experience with library configuration management (e.g., Altium Vault, database libraries, or PLM systems)
• Experience with either high-density, high-layer-count or large-format PCB designs, preferably for aerospace, automotive and/or medical applications
• Experience with HDI stackups: blind & buried vias, via-in-pad, escape routing of dense BGAs
• Familiarity with IPC and JEDEC standards
• Experience with Git and/or SVN for revision control

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary range dependent on leveling
  • PCB Designer I: $90,000 - $120,000
  • PCB Designer II: $110,000 - $150,000
  • Senior PCB Designer: $140,000 - $190,000
• Equity (via ISOs) in Second Order Effects, Inc.
• Equity (via PIUs) in our incubated companies (through our holding company, Second Order Holdings, LLC)
• 100% employer-paid health insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision) for employees + 50% dependent coverage
• Flexible paid time off policy + 11 paid holidays + 12 paid sick days
• 401(k) retirement account and employer matching (Safe Harbor 4%)
• Up to 22 weeks of paid parental leave dedicated to new child bonding
• Relocation assistance available if 50+ miles away from the office
• Electric Vehicle (EV) charging ports at our LAX office
• Daily catered lunches, snacks, and accessible kitchen