Senior Staff Engineer - Electrical

Vector Atomic • Pleasanton, CA

8d • $175,000 - $215,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Vector Atomic, an IonQ company, is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer - Electrical to develop electronic solutions for quantum instruments and oversee circuits from concept through implementation. The role is based onsite in Pleasanton, California, with up to 10% domestic or international travel. The engineer will work in a fast-paced, hands-on environment, balancing complex design work with troubleshooting and maintaining high quality standards. Candidates must meet the stated U.S. export-control eligibility requirements.

Requirements

• Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field with 12+ years of professional experience, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional electrical design experience developing complex mixed-signal PCBA designs using professional ECAD tools.
• Experience designing high-density PCBs with fine-pitch BGAs, high-speed differential pairs, and mixed-signal architectures using modern ECAD tools.
• Expert understanding of system-level design considerations for programmable devices such as SoCs, FPGAs, and MCUs.
• Ability to design precision electronics with tight noise and ripple specifications and make tradeoffs among size, weight, power, cost, and performance.
• Ability to define and implement controlled-impedance structures, signal-integrity strategies, power-distribution networks, grounding schemes, and EMI/EMC-aware layout practices.
• Experience using a PLM system to manage PCBA designs, including creating and managing ECOs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively across engineering teams.
• Comfort working in a laboratory environment, testing and debugging hardware with standard electronic instrumentation.
• Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident, or fall within the specified categories of refugees or asylees to comply with U.S. export-control laws.

Nice To Haves

• Strongly preferred experience with Altium Designer.
• Experience with Altium Designer schematic capture, PCB layout, library management, and output generation.
• Experience designing and implementing RF circuits on traditional PCBs or ceramic substrates.
• Experience integrating electronics with high-precision photonic components such as lasers, AOMs, and photodetectors.
• Knowledge of thermal analysis and PCB thermal design considerations, including heatsinking, copper pours, thermal vias, and component derating.
• Experience defining, simulating, and verifying ASIC designs.
• Professional experience in the precision sensor sector, such as atomic clocks or INS instrumentation.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with physicists and electrical, mechanical, software, and optical engineers to translate system and schematic requirements into electronic designs for next-generation quantum instruments.
• Own end-to-end development of complex PCBs, including requirements gathering, schematic and layout design, fabrication coordination, and performance verification.
• Assist with system integration and testing to ensure instrument specifications are met.
• Continuously improve PCB designs, development processes, and engineering procedures.
• Support manufacturing operations by troubleshooting customer-reported issues, developing test verification and assembly procedures, and ensuring boards meet yield, quality, and testability targets.
• Assist with electronic board bring-up and debugging, document PCB rework, and track issues.
• Use electronic test and measurement equipment to characterize and verify board performance.
• Maintain accurate design documentation in a cloud-based PLM system, including revisions and Engineering Change Orders (ECOs).

Benefits

• Platinum-level family medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Health and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Employer 401(k) contributions
• 20 days of paid time off and 11 paid holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Fully stocked kitchen
• Competitive compensation package including base salary, bonus, equity, and benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior