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.
Key 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: $140,00 - $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