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Salary: USD 164,594 - 246,788 / annual
Echodyne is seeking a Principal PCB Design Engineer to join the Advanced Technology Development team and lead physical design for demanding RF, high-speed digital, mixed-signal, and power electronics used in rapid radar prototypes and future products.
You will work on a high-performing, cross-disciplinary team where senior engineers have meaningful technical ownership, run fast experiments, and see their work move directly into future radar products. The company develops compact solid-state true beam-steering radar for autonomous vehicles, uncrewed aircraft and drones, border security, critical infrastructure protection, and smart cities, combining patented metamaterial technology with powerful software.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead PCB physical design for advanced technology prototypes, test vehicles, and future high-performance radar platforms
- Translate RF, antenna, analog, high-speed digital, power, mechanical, and manufacturing requirements into practical stackups, constraints, placement, routing, and interconnect solutions
- Create prototype boards, coupons, and test vehicles that prove new materials, structures, fabrication methods, and assembly approaches
- Collaborate with RF, electrical, mechanical, systems, manufacturing, suppliers, and key stakeholders to deliver mission-critical hardware within demanding engineering constraints
- Apply modern best-practices and establish reusable guidance for design for manufacturing (DFM), design for assembly (DFA), design for test (DFT), reliability, stackups, and known layout limits
- Provide Principal-level leadership through design reviews, supplier collaboration, mentoring, hands-on prototype bring-up, and transition of proven PCB solutions into product development
REQUIREMENTS:
- BS in Electronics, Electrical Engineering Technology, or related technical field and at least 12 years of relevant PCB design experience, or equivalent experience
- Strong hands-on experience designing complex multilayer PCBs for RF, high-speed digital, mixed-signal, analog, or power applications
- Advanced proficiency with Altium Designer or equivalent PCB design platform, including constraint management, library use, fabrication outputs, and design review
- Strong knowledge of stackups, controlled impedance, return paths, via structures, interconnects, laminates, finishes, tolerances, and PCB fabrication processes
- Practical command of signal integrity, power integrity, EMI and EMC, thermal behavior, reliability, design for manufacturing, design for assembly, and design for test
- Experience translating schematics, performance budgets, and interface requirements into manufacturable placement and routing decisions
- Experience working directly with PCB fabricators, assembly suppliers, materials and process engineers, and prototype build teams
- Ability to communicate design decisions, constraints, and risks clearly
- Eligibility to handle export-controlled technical data, including ITAR- and EAR-controlled information
DESIRED EXPERIENCE:
- Experience developing PCB technologies for radar, phased arrays, aerospace, defense, sensing, or other high-reliability and mission-critical products
- Experience in advanced technology development, applied research, rapid prototyping, or early hardware technology maturation
- Experience with antenna or RF-aperture PCB implementation, HDI, high-layer-count boards, rigid-flex, flex circuits, PTFE, mixed-material stackups, or metal-backed boards
- Experience laying out high-speed data converters, clock and frequency-synthesizer circuits, downconversion chains, FPGA or SoC interfaces, or high-current power distribution
- Competence with analysis tools such as Ansys Electronics Desktop, SIwave, HFSS, HyperLynx, Sigrity, or equivalent signal, power, and electromagnetic analysis tools
- Experience with supplier capability studies, qualification builds, design of experiments, yield analysis, failure analysis, or corrective action
- IPC CID, CID+, or another relevant PCB design certification
