Senior Platform Hardware Design Engineer

Job Details:

Job Description:

Position Overview

As a Platform Hardware Design Engineer, you will provide technical leadership for the architecture, design, integration, bring-up, and validation of complex platform hardware. You will drive hardware development end-to-end, translating high level system requirements into detailed circuit and component specifications and leading designs from architecture and schematic development through PCB implementation, board power-on, debugging, validation, and delivery. You will be expected to make platform level technical decisions, resolve complex and ambiguous multidisciplinary problems, lead critical design reviews, drive cross-functional alignment, mentor engineers, and influence hardware development practices across projects.

Our Business Group

You will be joining the Silicon and Platform Engineering Group (SPE), an organization at Intel committed to advancing Intel's mission of delivering world-class silicon and platform solutions. The group focuses on developing integrated systems that align with customer needs and support Intel's broader goals of leadership in technology innovation. SPE collaborates across diverse domains to ensure Intel platforms meet performance, reliability, and scalability requirements.

Our work sits at the intersection of silicon, board hardware, firmware, validation, signal and power integrity, mechanical and thermal engineering, PCB technology, manufacturing, and system integration.

Our senior hardware engineers have a broader responsibility than executing an individual design. They help establish platform architecture, guide implementation, identify and qualify appropriate hardware solutions, provide technical leadership during board power-on and debug, and lead resolution of schematic, layout, SI/PI, and hardware issues.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Architecture and End-to-End Technical Ownership

• Own complex platform-board designs from requirements and architecture through deployment.
• Translate high level platform and silicon requirements into system architecture, circuit level requirements, component specifications, and PCB implementation requirements.
• Define and drive critical platform architecture decisions encompassing high speed interfaces, memory, power delivery, clocking, resets, sequencing, control, management, and validation functionality.
• Lead design trade-offs across electrical performance, SI/PI, thermal and mechanical constraints, board complexity, reliability, manufacturability, component availability, cost, schedule, and system compatibility.
• Establish clear technical direction where platform requirements or implementation approaches are initially ambiguous.

Advanced Board Design and Technical Leadership

• Lead development of complex high density, multilayer PCBs incorporating advanced digital, analog, mixed signal, and power circuitry.
• Own or provide technical leadership for schematic design, component selection, interface definition, PCB implementation, and design verification.
• Establish PCB stack-up, placement, routing, impedance, power distribution, and critical interface requirements in collaboration with layout and analysis teams.
• Lead schematic, layout, and technical design reviews and ensure critical findings are driven to closure.
• Guide engineers and layout teams in resolving challenging schematic, PCB, layout, and design-for-X issues.
• Identify and qualify new hardware solutions and reusable design approaches where appropriate.

High-Speed Design and SI/PI

• Apply deep understanding of signal integrity, power integrity, transmission-line behavior, high-speed interfaces, and platform power delivery to architecture and implementation decisions.
• Partner with SI/PI engineers to establish design constraints and evaluate critical interfaces and power delivery networks.
• Review PCB implementations for stack-up, placement, routing, return path continuity, high speed performance, and advanced SI/PI considerations.
• Use modeling, simulation, measurement, and hardware correlation to guide technical decisions as appropriate.

Power Architecture and Power Delivery

• Define and review platform power delivery architecture, voltage regulation, sequencing, power budgeting, and power distribution networks.
• Evaluate board and system power delivery tradeoffs, considering electrical performance, transient behavior, PCB implementation, and platform requirements.
• Work with power integrity specialists to assess PDN behavior and drive required design improvements.
• Apply simulation and hardware measurement to correlate power delivery behavior and resolve platform issues.

Board Bring-up, System Integration and Debug

• Define and lead power-on, bring up, validation, characterization, and debug strategy for complex platform hardware.
• Lead resolution of difficult issues spanning board hardware, silicon, firmware, high-speed interfaces, power delivery, and system integration.
• Use disciplined root cause analysis to diagnose failures and define corrective actions.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in the lab during critical power-on, bring up, and debug activities.
• Apply appropriate measurement techniques and laboratory equipment for high speed, low speed, clock, power, and digital/analog circuitry.
• Drive problems across engineering boundaries until technical closure.

Program and Cross-functional Leadership

• Serve as a senior technical interface across silicon, firmware, validation, SI/PI, mechanical, thermal, PCB layout, manufacturing, suppliers, and program teams.
• Lead technical discussions and design reviews and communicate risks, tradeoffs, recommendations, and design decisions clearly to stakeholders.
• Identify technical and execution risks early and drive mitigation plans.
• Own technical readiness for critical hardware milestones, including design release, fabrication, assembly, power-on, and validation.
• Develop and improve reusable architectures, review methodologies, design checklists, development flows, and engineering practices.
• Mentor engineers through architecture development, schematic and PCB reviews, bring-up, debug, and technical problem solving.
• Influence technical decisions and engineering practices beyond an individual board or project.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 6+ years significant hands-on industry experience in complex platform hardware, PCB development, or system hardware engineering.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex board designs from architecture and requirements through schematic design, PCB implementation, bring-up, debug, and validation.
• Deep understanding of digital and analog board design, electrical interfaces, mixed-signal fundamentals, and system architecture.
• Strong knowledge of high speed interfaces, transmission line behavior, signal integrity, power integrity, memory, clocking, reset, sequencing, and power delivery.
• Proven experience with PCB technologies and layout techniques, including stack-up, placement, routing, and advanced SI/PI considerations.
• Advanced experience with schematic capture and PCB design/review environments.
• Strong hands-on laboratory experience and demonstrated ability to diagnose complex board level problems, determine root cause, and drive corrective actions.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze board/system level design tradeoffs and make sound technical decisions.
• Ability to independently lead complex technical development activities and drive issues across multiple engineering functions.
• Strong technical documentation, presentation, written communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Demonstrated technical leadership and mentoring capability.

Preferred Qualifications

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