Manufacturing Engineering Lead

About Etched

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Manufacturing Engineering Lead to drive the manufacturing engineering strategy and execution for Etched's silicon-to-system products. This role will focus on building and scaling manufacturing processes, line bring-up, and production execution for boards, servers, and rack-level systems in close partnership with our contract manufacturing partners.

This is a senior, hands-on role for a leader who can operate at both the factory floor and systems level. You will serve as the technical bridge between product development and manufacturing, ensuring our designs, processes, tooling, and work instructions are ready to support NPI, production ramp, and sustained volume execution. You will work cross-functionally with hardware, manufacturing test, manufacturing quality, supply chain, and operations teams to deliver high-quality systems against aggressive schedules.

The ideal candidate has deep experience in manufacturing engineering for complex hardware systems, including process development, DFX, line qualification, yield improvement, and factory readiness. You should be comfortable owning external manufacturing relationships, driving technical issue resolution, and building the manufacturing engineering foundation required to scale a world-class AI hardware company.

Key responsibilities

Manufacturing Engineering Leadership

• Lead manufacturing engineering strategy and execution for Etched products from prototype builds through mass production.
• Serve as the primary technical manufacturing interface between Etched and external JDM/CM partners.
• Build and scale manufacturing processes, controls, tooling, and documentation required for reliable factory execution.
• Partner with hardware, systems, and test teams early in development to drive DFM, DFA, DFT, and DFY into product designs.
• Establish manufacturing readiness criteria across NPI builds, pilot runs, ramp, and sustaining production.

Process Development and Factory Readiness

• Develop, qualify, and scale manufacturing processes for server and rack-level systems, including mechanical assembly, PCBA integration, bring-up, burn-in, and final system test.
• Drive production line bring-up, fixture and tooling readiness, operator instructions, and process validation at manufacturing partners.
• Ensure processes are repeatable, controlled, and capable of meeting quality, throughput, and cost targets.
• Identify bottlenecks in assembly, test, rework, and material flow, and implement corrective actions to improve factory performance.
• Define manufacturing line layouts, staffing assumptions, UPH targets, and capacity models to support ramp planning.
• Expertise in PFMEA, control plans, data analysis, and strong communication skills to influence executive stakeholders.
• Strong SMT - process development capabilities, able to drive pragmatic DOEs to develop new cutting edge processes as well as enhancing existing processes.

Cross-Functional Manufacturing Execution

• Partner closely with Manufacturing Test to ensure smooth handoff and integration of test stations into production lines.
• Partner with Manufacturing Quality on process controls, nonconformance trends, CAPAs, and closed-loop factory improvement.
• Partner with MPM on build planning, readiness tracking, ramp execution, and issue escalation.
• Drive root cause analysis and corrective actions for process deviations, line issues, and manufacturing inefficiencies.
• Support failure analysis and closed-loop feedback between factory, design, reliability, and quality teams.
• Strong ability to influence without authority, mentor engineers, and communicate with executive leadership.

External Partner Management

• Work directly with contract manufacturers and critical suppliers to ensure technical alignment, process control, and execution against plan.
• Lead technical reviews at partner sites covering build readiness, process capability, yield, quality, and ramp risk.
• Establish clear accountability with external partners for delivery, quality, responsiveness, and continuous improvement.
• Support audits, training, and escalation management across manufacturing sites.

Operational Excellence

• Build manufacturing dashboards and reporting for yield, throughput, cycle time, rework, downtime, and other key factory KPIs.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across cost, manufacturability, quality, and production velocity.
• Partner with supply chain, planning, and operations to ensure material readiness and factory execution remain aligned.
• Help define the long-term manufacturing engineering infrastructure needed to support Etched's growth.
• Develop and execute the manufacturing engineering strategy aligned with corporate goals, managing capital expenditure projects, and optimizing resources.
• Mentor and lead engineers, fostering a culture of accountability and innovation.

You may be a good fit if you have

• 12+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, production engineering, or operations engineering in complex hardware environments. Preference for server, storage, or complex industrial product experience.
• Strong experience taking products from NPI through ramp and into sustained production.
• Hands-on experience with line bring-up, process qualification, fixture/tooling development, manufacturing validation, and production issue resolution.
• Proven track record driving DFM, DFA, and manufacturability improvements in partnership with hardware and systems engineering teams.
• Experience working closely and onsite in Asia with JDMs, ODMs, or contract manufacturers in high-performance computing, datacenter, server, semiconductor, or similarly complex hardware environments.
• Strong technical understanding of system-level manufacturing and factory process scaling.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills and ability to lead through influence across internal and external teams.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical field.

If you have not been on an SMT line in the past year, please do not apply.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
• $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
• Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
• Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
• Daily lunch and dinner in our office

How we're different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

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 as needed.