Hardware Systems Engineer

Apple•Cupertino, CA

12h

About The Position

The Hardware Systems Engineer will work on the Systems EE team to design and develop hardware systems for future Apple products. The role involves owning electrical architecture and implementation, performing detailed design work, and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to integrate hardware through production. It requires both a strong understanding of system architecture and hands-on experience with hardware bring-up, debugging, prototyping, validation, and manufacturing support. The engineer will create schematics and layouts for highly constrained multilayer PCBs, including HDI boards and fine-pitch BGAs; select components; validate designs using lab equipment; analyze factory-scale data; and help address manufacturing issues before high-volume production. The role also requires communicating progress and managing concurrent priorities. Travel to contract manufacturers is approximately five weeks per year.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering.
At least 2 years of relevant industry experience focused on hardware system design.
Strong electrical engineering fundamentals and circuit knowledge, with emphasis on DC/DC conversion, power and signal integrity, and analog/digital design, along with practical engineering judgment.
Hands-on electrical design experience, including component selection, circuit design, schematic capture, and component placement.
Proficiency in standard interfaces: PCIe, USB, I2C, Thunderbolt, SPI, UART, and HDMI.
Strong working knowledge of PCB/flex layout and associated CAD tools.
Hands-on experience with lab equipment such as oscilloscopes and multimeters for prototype bring-up, debugging, and functional validation.
Ability to stay organized, execute to a timeline, and produce high-quality deliverables.
Experience taking designs from concept to mass production in the consumer electronics space.
Outstanding written and verbal communication and presentation abilities, including communication with all levels of an organization.

Nice To Haves

Deep expertise in several of the following areas: CPU, GPU, or RF design.
Strong scripting skills.
Experience with statistical data analysis and visualization, such as JMP.

Responsibilities

Own electrical architecture and implementation.
Lead schematic creation and layout.
Perform hardware bring-up, debugging, and validation.
Build prototypes to validate proof-of-concept designs.
Conduct failure analysis and troubleshooting.
Evaluate and select components through detailed datasheet analysis.
Design schematics and layouts for highly constrained, multilayer PCBs, including HDI boards and fine-pitch BGAs.
Lead prototype bring-up, debugging, functional verification, and electrical characterization.
Perform electrical design validation using advanced lab equipment, including oscilloscopes, network analyzers, BERT, and VNAs, to assess signal quality and design robustness.
Analyze factory-scale data to ensure hardware quality, optimize design parameters, and assess robustness.
Review factory test fixture designs and manufacturing test plans to ensure comprehensive hardware validation.
Debug manufacturing issues and drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions into design and process ahead of high-volume production.
Communicate and present status on concurrent priorities, open issues, and deadlines.
Travel to contract manufacturers approximately five weeks per year.