System Electrical Engineer

Tacit•San Francisco, CA

2d•$180,000 - $220,000

About The Position

Tacit is an early-stage deep-tech startup based in San Francisco developing hardware that rethinks human-computer interaction. The company is backed by General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, and Greylock Partners, and its founding team includes people from Stanford, BrainGate, Oculus, and Tesla. The System Electrical Engineer will validate, debug, and improve the core electrical blocks of next-generation sensing hardware, working between design and validation. The role involves bringing up prototypes on the bench, measuring architectural blocks, identifying and root-causing issues, and using findings to inform subsequent schematic and layout revisions. Work spans the product lifecycle from prototype through mass production, including bring-up, design updates, and test implementation, with a focus on improving performance, reducing power, and shrinking area. As products approach production, the engineer may also support builds with contract manufacturers.

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
At least 3 years of experience in electrical engineering, hardware design, or hardware validation.
Strong fundamentals in analog and mixed-signal circuits, power conversion and regulation, signal integrity, power integrity, and grounding.
Strong hands-on debugging skills and a track record of root-causing hardware issues on real boards.
Hands-on experience with board bring-up and lab instruments such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, electronic loads, and probes.
Experience with schematic capture and multilayer PCB design using Altium Designer or an equivalent tool.
Working knowledge of high-speed interfaces such as USB, Quad-SPI, MIPI, or DDR, and low-speed buses such as I2C, SPI, and UART.
Experience with power and battery systems, including DC-DC converters, LDOs, PMICs, and Li-ion or Li-poly charging.
Ability to write clear validation plans and reports.
Comfort working in a fast-moving startup where engineers own substantial parts of the hardware.

Nice To Haves

Python or similar scripting for lab automation and instrument control, such as PyVISA or SCPI.
Embedded firmware experience in C or C++, sufficient to add test hooks and diagnostics.
Signal integrity and power integrity simulation experience using tools such as HyperLynx, Ansys SIwave, or Cadence Sigrity.
Familiarity with RF circuits and components.
Experience with wearable, body-worn, or battery-powered devices with tight power, size, and thermal constraints.
Experience with low-noise analog front ends, biopotential sensing, or other sensitive sensor interfaces.
Statistical analysis of test data across units and builds, including yield, limits, and outlier detection.
Production test experience with test fixtures, boundary scan/JTAG, ICT, or calibration flows.
Experience supporting EVT, DVT, or PVT builds with contract manufacturers.
Familiarity with EMI/EMC pre-compliance testing and reliability or environmental testing.

Responsibilities

Bring up prototype boards and establish stable, measurable operating conditions.
Write and execute validation plans for power rails, battery charging and power management, high-speed interfaces, sensor front ends, and mixed-signal paths.
Characterize electrical blocks across voltage, load, temperature, and operating modes, and compare results with design intent.
Debug analog, digital, and power domains using lab instruments, and root-cause issues including rail noise and ripple, signal integrity problems, noise coupling, unexpected resets, and excess power draw.
Distinguish genuine failures from measurement artifacts and support conclusions with data.
Translate validation findings into schematic and layout changes for subsequent prototype cycles.
Own schematic and PCB updates for validated blocks, collaborating with the senior hardware team on architecture and component choices.
Identify ways to reduce power consumption, quiescent current, board area, and component count without sacrificing performance.
Build repeatable bench test setups and automate measurements where useful.
Analyze statistics across units and builds to set limits, identify outliers, and track yield.
Conduct reliability and stress testing and feed failure findings back into design.
Help transition bench tests into production tests and support builds with contract manufacturers as products move toward production.
Collaborate with mechanical, firmware, and software engineers on bring-up, debugging, and design trade-offs.
Write clear validation reports and debug summaries that support design decisions.