Sr Principal Engineer, Application Engineering & System Design

Job Title:Senior Principal Engineer Hardware Application Engineering Board & System Design

Location: Santa Clara CA (Onsite 5 days/week)

Department: Engineering / Architecture

Group: Customer Solutions Group

Position Type: Full-Time (New Position)

Base Compensation: USD $200000 $266400 / year (No variable compensation/bonus flexibility)

Relocation Assistance: Available

Visa Sponsorship: Available

About the Team & Role

Our Customer Solutions Group is the frontline technical partner to the worlds most demanding infrastructure customersmegascale data centers cloud providers and AI system builders. We turn cutting-edge silicon into deployable platforms by working shoulder-to-shoulder with customer engineering teams from early architecture through production ramp.

As Senior Principal Engineer for Board & System Hardware Design you will serve as the senior technical authority guiding customer hardware design-in on proprietary Ethernet Switch and UALink platforms. You will act as the crucial technical bridge between internal silicon teams hardware engineering and field operations.

This is a deep individual contributor role with a strong system-design and productization focus. Your primary mission is to ensure that customers next-generation switches AI fabric platforms and networking systems are designed right the first timeperformant manufacturable reliable and ready for high-volume production.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Customer Enablement

System Architecture & Hardware Design Guidance

• Drive PCB stack-up strategy and material selection (low-loss laminates copper roughness glass weave via construction) to meet high-speed performance and cost targets.
• Guide customers on power delivery architecture including PDN design multi-rail sequencing decoupling strategy and tolerance analysis for high-current ASICs.
• Advise on thermal design mechanical integration and cooling strategies (air liquid immersion) to meet performance and reliability targets in real deployments.
• Provide guidance on signal and power integrity (SI/PI) reviewing customer simulations and contributing simulations directly when required.
• Drive Design for Reliability Manufacturability and Testability (DFx)ensuring smooth transitions to production at ODM/CM partners.

Next-Gen Tech & Cross-Functional Influence

• Provide technical leadership on 112G and 224G PAM4 SerDes designs today and help shape the hardware approach for next-generation 448G systems and open AI fabric standards.
• Lead hardware bring-up support root-cause debug and issue resolution during customer lab phases and early production.
• Act as a vital field-feedback channel to internal silicon and hardware teamsinfluencing silicon I/O package power and reference design choices based on real-world customer deployment learnings.

Candidate Profile & Qualifications

Must-Have Requirements

• Education: Bachelors Masters or PhD in Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering or a related field.
• Overall Experience: 15 years in hardware design development and validation of high-speed networking or compute systems.
• SerDes Expertise: 7 years of dedicated experience in board and system design for high-speed platforms involving modern SerDes (25G NRZ through 112G/224G PAM4).
• Board Lifecycle: Proven full-lifecycle ownership of complex high-speed boards (architecture schematic layout guidance bring-up).
• Reference Designs: Demonstrated experience defining and delivering reference designs that enabled customer or internal platform adoption.

• Technical Depth:
  • Strong expertise in high-layer-count PCB stack-up design and material selection.
  • Deep experience with power architecture for high-current ASICs (PDN design sequencing decoupling tolerance analysis).
  • Solid background in thermal design and mechanical integration for high-power network/AI systems.
  • Working knowledge of SI/PI principles (ability to review and run targeted simulations).
  • Hands-on lab experience with hardware bring-up debugging and root-cause analysis using industry-standard equipment.
  • Deep understanding of high-speed interfaces: Ethernet PCIe DDR advanced SerDes and modern power delivery.
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• Soft Skills & Leadership:
  • Proven customer-facing experience supporting complex technical engagements.
  • Ability to develop and deliver technical training to engineering audiences.
  • Exceptional communication skills with a track record of influencing senior customer engineering teams across geographies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience with Ethernet switch platforms (any tier) and/or emerging open AI fabric standards.
• Experience designing or reviewing hardware platforms targeting megascale data center deployments.
• Background in reference platform design and customer enablement for silicon-based solutions.
• Familiarity with ODM/CM manufacturing flows including DFM/DFT qualification and reliability testing.
• Experience with advanced cooling approaches (liquid immersion) for high-power AI/networking platforms.
• Fluency with EDA tools in either Cadence (Allegro/Sigrity) or Mentor/Siemens (Xpedition/HyperLynx) ecosystems (tool-agnostic experts are welcome).
• Track record of influencing silicon and platform roadmaps based on field insights.

Leadership Impact & Work Environment

• Leadership & Mentorship: Set the technical bar for board and system design quality across the most strategic customer engagements; mentor engineers and raise collective team expertise.
• Travel: Project-driven travel to customer sites ODMs and labs as needed (not continuous).

• Serve as the primary senior technical advisor to customer hardware teams designing platforms around company Ethernet switches and UALink silicon from early architecture through production ramp.
• Lead design-in reviews of customer schematics PCB stack-ups and overall system architectures identifying risks early and guiding customers to best-in-class implementations.
• Define develop and support reference designs for new siliconpartnering with silicon packaging and internal hardware engineering teams from early product definition through customer release.
• Own architecture schematic layout guidance and bring-up of company reference and evaluation platforms applying full lifecycle hands-on expertise.
• Develop and deliver high-impact technical training to customers and internal teams covering proprietary silicon reference designs high-speed design best practices and productization methodologies.