Senior PCBA Design Engineer

About the role

We're looking for a Senior ECAD Designer to own PCB schematic capture and layout in Altium Designer, with particular depth in power electronics and high-speed digital design. You will take boards from architecture and stack-up definition through layout, incorporating best practices such as design-for-manufacturability (DFM), signal integrity, power integrity, and EMC. In this role, you will partner closely with electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing teams to deliver reliable, production-ready designs on schedule.

Responsibilities

• Perform schematic capture and PCB layout for mixed-signal, power, and high-speed digital boards.
• Define stack-up, layer count, and material selection to meet electrical, thermal, and cost targets.
• Design and route power delivery networks, accounting for current-carrying capacity, copper weight, and thermal reliefs for layouts of DC/DC converters, power switching circuits, and bus/rail distribution for optimal power integrity.
• Implement controlled-impedance routing, differential pair routing, length matching/tuning, and via strategy for high-speed interfaces (e.g., PCIe, DDR, USB, Ethernet, LVDS, SerDes).
• Apply design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly best practices; partner with PCB fabricators and contract manufacturers (CMs) on design rule checks, panelization, tolerancing, and yield/cost tradeoffs.
• Apply grounding, shielding, filtering, and layer-stack techniques to mitigate EMI/EMC risk, and support pre-compliance and regulatory testing (e.g., CE, FCC, UL) as needed.
• Design and document to relevant IPC standards (e.g., IPC-2221, IPC-6012, IPC-2152) and internal design rules; maintain and evolve design rule sets, layer stack templates, and library standards.
• Generate complete manufacturing outputs — Gerbers, drill files, BOMs, fabrication drawings, and assembly drawings — along with clear design documentation and constraint files. Support engineers with design releases in the product lifecycle management system.
• Create and maintain Altium schematic symbols, PCB footprints, and component library data in alignment with company library standards and part-lifecycle requirements.
• Work closely with electrical, mechanical, thermal, and manufacturing engineers to align layout with system requirements; participate in design reviews and provide layout feasibility input early in the design cycle.
• Drive discussions with ECAD software vendors on renewals, product selections, and software bugs with the oversight of the electrical engineering manager.
• Act as a technical mentor to junior/mid-level designers on layout best practices, documentation standards, and use of Altium tools.

Requirements

• Expert-level proficiency in Altium Designer for schematic capture and PCB layout; comfort with rule-driven design, layer stack management, and library administration.
• Demonstrated experience designing and laying out power electronics: DC/DC converters, power planes, bus bars/high-current traces, thermal management, and power protection schemes (e.g., fusing, current limiting).
• Demonstrated experience with high-speed digital layout: impedance-controlled routing, differential pairs, length matching, via optimization, and stack-up design for GHz-class interfaces.
• Working knowledge of signal integrity (SI) and power integrity (PI) concepts and how layout decisions affect them; experience collaborating with SI/PI engineers or running basic simulation/analysis a plus.
• Solid understanding of DFM/DFA principles and hands-on experience working directly with fabrication houses and contract manufacturers.
• Practical knowledge of EMC/EMI mitigation techniques in layout (grounding, shielding, plane splits, filtering placement).
• Familiarity with IPC standards; IPC Certified Interconnect Designer (CID) or CID+ certification preferred but not required.
• Experience with flex, rigid-flex, or HDI/microvia design a plus.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to produce clear design documentation and communicate tradeoffs to cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent design projects and mentor/provide work direction to other designers.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment where "perfect" is the enemy of "shipped," knowing exactly when a design is robust enough for the real world.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent experience.
• At least 5 years of experience in PCB schematic capture and layout design.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times.
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen.
• Hearing and speech to communicate.