Forward Deployed Hardware Engineer

We need an advanced PCB engineer who can own complex customer hardware projects from requirements through manufacturing and board bring-up. You would work directly with customers, design production-grade boards natively in KiCad and use copperhead across the whole engineering workflow, which means your experience on real hardware shapes the product about as directly as it shapes the boards. This is a senior, execution-heavy role. It is not suitable for beginners, or for engineers whose experience stops at basic microcontroller boards. The engagement starts as a paid contract of six to eight weeks around an active CM5 carrier-board project, and work that goes well can lead to a longer-term or founding hardware role. It is in person in Bengaluru for the whole engagement and remote applications will not be considered.

What you would own

• Work directly with customers to understand product requirements, constraints and existing designs.
• Own system architecture, component selection, schematic design and PCB layout.
• Design and modify complex multilayer boards natively in KiCad.
• Use copperhead to design, document and verify customer projects.
• Define stack-ups, impedance requirements, routing constraints and length-matching rules.
• Conduct schematic, layout, ERC, DRC, DFM and design reviews.
• Prepare BOMs, fabrication files, assembly files and production documentation.
• Coordinate prototype fabrication and assembly.
• Lead board bring-up, validation, debugging and design revisions.
• Translate what you learn in the field into improvements to copperhead’s tools and verification systems.

Hard requirements

• Five or more years of professional electronics or PCB engineering experience.
• Advanced, production-level KiCad experience.
• You have personally designed at least one Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM5 carrier board.
• You can share evidence of that carrier-board work, with confidential details removed.
• Experience taking multilayer boards from requirements through fabrication, assembly and bring-up.
• Strong understanding of high-speed digital design, signal integrity and power integrity.
• Experience with controlled-impedance routing, differential pairs and length matching.
• Hands-on experience with MIPI CSI/DSI, USB, PCIe, Ethernet and microSD interfaces.
• Strong knowledge of power-tree design, protection, sequencing and component selection.
• Experience debugging boards with oscilloscopes, logic analysers and laboratory power supplies.
• Understanding of DFM, DFT, EMI/EMC and production test requirements.
• You work independently and own the engineering outcome.
• You can work in person from Bengaluru for the whole engagement.

Nice to have

None of this is required. It is what would make the work easier from the first day, not what decides the first email.

• Raspberry Pi CM5 carrier-board design specifically
• Compact, high-density four to eight layer boards
• Camera and vision hardware
• Embedded Linux and device-tree configuration
• Hardware designed for industrial temperature ranges
• Prototype sourcing, assembly and manufacturing coordination in India
• Customer-facing engineering or technical consulting