SMT Engineer

About Etched

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Supplier PCBA Manufacturing Engineer to serve as the primary manufacturing engineering representative at our Contract Manufacturing (CM) partner in Taiwan. This role is a critical member of our PCBA Manufacturing Engineering organization and acts as the technical bridge between our Product Design teams in the United States and our manufacturing partners in Asia.

Unlike a traditional Manufacturing Engineer, this role does not own production operations or SMT equipment. Instead, you will provide technical leadership, mentorship, and manufacturing engineering oversight to ensure our suppliers successfully industrialize and manufacture high-complexity PCBAs with exceptional quality, yield, and reliability.

You will work closely with our US-based PCBA Manufacturing Technology Experts, Hardware Design Engineers, Supplier Quality, and CM Engineering teams to drive Design for Manufacturability (DfM), New Product Introduction (NPI), process optimization, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Contract Manufacturer Technical Leadership

  • Serve as the primary manufacturing engineering interface between the company and Contract Manufacturing partners.

  • Build strong technical relationships with supplier engineering teams.

  • Mentor supplier manufacturing engineers on industry best practices for PCBA assembly.

  • Drive alignment to corporate manufacturing standards and engineering expectations.

  • Provide technical leadership during engineering reviews, design transfers, and production readiness assessments.

• New Product Introduction (NPI)

  • Support prototype, engineering validation, pilot, and production builds.

  • Assess manufacturing readiness before production release.

  • Coordinate issue resolution during early production.

  • Monitor first-pass yield and manufacturing performance during product introduction.

  • Ensure manufacturing feedback is communicated to US engineering teams.

• PCBA Manufacturing Engineering

  • Review SMT manufacturing processes for compliance with company manufacturing standards.

  • Evaluate stencil design, solder paste application, reflow profiles, inspection strategies, and assembly methods.

  • Recommend process improvements that improve yield, reliability, throughput, and manufacturability.

  • Review engineering changes for manufacturing impact.

  • Validate implementation of process improvements and corrective actions.

• Design for Manufacturability (DfM)

  • Collaborate with US Manufacturing Technology Engineers to provide manufacturing feedback on PCB layouts and assembly strategies.

  • Identify manufacturability risks associated with component placement, package selection, panelization, soldering, and assembly processes.

  • Support Design for Assembly (DfA) and Design for Test (DfT) initiatives.

  • Capture manufacturing lessons learned and feed them back into future product designs.

• Supplier Development & Continuous Improvement

  • Drive supplier capability improvements through technical coaching and mentoring.

  • Monitor manufacturing KPIs including yield, defects, rework, and process stability.

  • Participate in root cause investigations and corrective action reviews.

  • Identify opportunities to improve manufacturing robustness, efficiency, and scalability.

  • Promote best practices across multiple manufacturing sites.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Partner with Hardware Design, PCBA Manufacturing Technology Engineers, Supplier Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations.

  • Support customer visits, technical reviews, and manufacturing audits.

  • Communicate manufacturing risks, technical issues, and recommended actions to stakeholders.

You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline / proven experience.

• 5+ years of experience in PCBA manufacturing engineering, SMT process engineering, NPI, or supplier manufacturing engineering.

• Strong understanding of SMT assembly processes, including stencil printing, pick-and-place, reflow soldering, AOI, SPI, and X-ray inspection.

• Experience supporting contract manufacturers or electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers.

• Strong knowledge of Design for Manufacturability (DfM) and PCB assembly processes.

• Experience supporting complex PCBAs including fine-pitch BGAs, QFN, CSP, and high-density assemblies.

• Experience performing technical root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English and Mandarin.

• Ability to travel within Taiwan as required.

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

• Experience supporting AI, server, networking, telecommunications, automotive, or other high-performance electronic products.

• Knowledge of IPC standards including IPC-A-610, IPC-7095, IPC-7351, and J-STD-001.

• Experience with solder joint reliability, thermal management, and electronic interconnection technologies.

• Familiarity with PFMEA, Control Plans, and process capability analysis.

• Experience working with multinational engineering teams.

• Strong technical problem-solving and analytical skills.

• Ability to influence without direct authority.

• Excellent interpersonal and relationship-building skills.

• Customer-focused mindset.

• Comfortable working in fast-paced New Product Introduction (NPI) environments.

• Strong organizational and project management skills.

• Passion for manufacturing excellence and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation packages, including generous equity packages

• Comprehensive insurance coverage and other top-of-market benefits

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taipei, and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.