Head of Hardware Design

Flux•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Why Flux Flux is taking the hard out of hardware, by developing the first AI Hardware Engineer. Our goal is to democratize the ability to create bleeding edge hardware, and revolutionize how electronics are designed and built around the world. The Role We’re looking for an experienced electrical engineering leader who will own the hardware design practices and guiding principles of our platform. You’ll steer the evolution of our ECAD tool's core capabilities as well as the correctness of our AI Hardware Engineer's system knowledge and design approach. You'll actively partner with product leadership to shape and prioritize AI capability development, evaluation frameworks, and in developing scaled approaches to guide our community to successful PCB projects. In this role, you'll grow our existing Hardware Design function and team. This is a high‑impact, multidisciplinary role for someone who has experience building complex electronics that shipped at scale (e.g., smartphones, wearables, high‑performance compute, networking, robotics) and loves translating real‑world engineering constraints into powerful tools and AI behaviors.

Requirements

Deep EE breadth + depth with real products in the field. Comfortable spanning:
RF & wireless: from sub‑GHz to mmWave; matching, filtering, antenna/feed layout.
EMI/EMC & ESD: design‑for‑compliance, grounding/return paths, shielding, filtering.
Power electronics: DC‑DC (buck/boost), PMICs, PoE, motor/actuator control, power sequencing, efficiency/thermal trade‑offs.
Analog & mixed‑signal: sensor interfaces, data converters, low‑noise design.
High‑speed digital: DDRx, PCIe/SerDes, USB‑C/USB4, MIPI, Ethernet (1G–25G+); timing, skew, and equalization considerations.
SI/PI: signal/power integrity analysis, decoupling strategies, return‑path control.
PCB/stackup expertise: material selection and stackup definition , controlled impedance , differential pair tuning & length‑matching , via strategies (blind/buried, microvia, backdrill), HDI (high‑density interconnect) , panelization, and build rules with fabs/EMS.
DFM/DFT & manufacturing : hands‑on bring‑up and debug, test coverage, fixture definition; tight collaboration with CMs/ODMs.
Tooling fluency: meaningful time in multiple ECADs (e.g., Altium, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD, Mentor Xpedition, KiCad, Zuken) and experience with simulation tools (SPICE, SI/PI such as ADS/HyperLynx/SIwave; 3D EM such as HFSS), plus lab instrumentation (oscilloscope, VNA, logic analyzer, power analyzer).
Product sense & communication: ability to turn messy user needs into simple workflows; excellent written specs, diagrams, and presentations; confident with senior leadership and deep‑dive technical reviews.
Leadership at multiple altitudes: thrive as both a hands‑on engineer and a manager; co-develop core ECAD product strategy. Hire, mentor, and scale processes while staying close to the work.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a larger technical org (e.g., hardware product management or lead EE for critical subsystems at a world‑class company) with a track record of shipping at scale.
On the ground factory and test, mass production, and quality/yield optimization experience. Actively participating in builds and carrying key responsibilities to realize designs at scale.
Prior design‑partner or customer‑facing role (product management, applications, FAEs, field engineering, or cross‑functional liaison) that turned feedback into product wins.
Hands‑on across ECAD platforms ; passion for great engineering tools and workflows.
Practical exposure to AI/ML (prompting/evaluation, data curation/labeling, or integrating ML‑assisted design tools).

Responsibilities

Drive ECAD feature design & specs – Craft product requirements for core ECAD behaviors across placement/routing, constraints management, stackup, impedance control, DRC/DFM, manufacturing outputs, and prototyping workflows. Co-author specs, validate by running dogfooding initiatives, beta programs, and scaled user feedback.
Be the design partner to AI/ML – Teach the world’s first AI hardware engineer how to design successful products. Define best practices, guardrails, and evaluation harnesses; curate datasets; review AI‑generated designs; create the AI expertise that will help more people build successful hardware on their first production run, without releasing the magic smoke.
Build out the Hardware Design function – Start as a hands‑on manager with two existing reports. Over time, refine the team's core responsibilities, and build a larger team that produces reference designs, demos, product specs, training, and field feedback loops.
Develop real hardware – Lead quick‑turn-around prototypes (from schematic to bring‑up) that exercise product/AI capabilities. Instrument designs for SI/PI and power/thermal validation; close the loop with data.
Amplify user insight – Adopt ownership and improve upon current user experience signals, feedback loops, and channeling user input into our iterative product design. Strategically invest in deeper customer relationships. Champion the user’s voice in cross‑functional forums. Partner closely with our software engineering department in ensuring AI evaluations are reflective of real-world user requirements.
Product – Be the "voice of the customer" within the organization, addressing vision, strategy, research & discovery, prioritization and cross-functional leadership.