Electrical Engineer 3

Job Title

Electrical Engineer 3 - Triggering & PCBA Design (Senior Electrical Engineer)

Role Summary

Lead design, development, and validation of high-precision triggering electronics and printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) for Onto Innovation capital equipment platforms within the Foundation Engineering Organization (FEO).

Work spans trigger architecture, deterministic timing, system integration, and collaboration with supply chain and manufacturing to deliver reliable, low-latency synchronization for metrology and motion subsystems.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Typical experience: 5+ years in electrical engineering with demonstrated systems integration and PCBA design responsibility.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include:

• Design and implement high-precision, low-latency electrical triggering circuits and deterministic timing architectures for synchronization of optics, motion, sensing, and image acquisition.
• Define trigger interfaces, timing specifications, and electrical standards for cross-product reuse.
• Lead schematic design, PCB layout reviews, component selection, and design validation for trigger-related and platform PCBAs.
• Ensure electrical performance, EMI/EMC robustness, thermal management, and reliability of PCBAs.
• Collaborate with systems engineering to integrate trigger electronics into modules and system-level architectures; perform bring-up, debug, and characterization of timing performance.
• Lead root-cause investigations for timing, jitter, synchronization, or triggering failures across product lines.
• Work with supply chain and manufacturing to optimize DFM/DFT and transfer designs to EMS partners.
• Develop and maintain documentation, standards, and best practices for triggering hardware and interface architectures.

Requirements

Must-have and preferred technical skills:

• Must-have: 5+ years of electrical engineering experience in PCBA design, embedded electronics, timing circuits, or triggering systems.
• Deep knowledge of timing circuits, signal integrity, jitter management, and clock distribution in mixed analog/digital systems.
• Proficiency with PCB design tools (Altium, OrCAD, Cadence) and lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, signal generators).
• Experience designing hardware for precision motion systems, high-speed sensors, metrology, or electro-mechanical systems.
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally at least 20% of the time.

Preferred:

• Experience in semiconductor capital equipment, robotics, or precision instrumentation.
• Background in mixed-signal design and integration of analog front-ends with digital control electronics.
• Knowledge of reliability engineering (DFMEA, root-cause analysis, environmental/thermal testing) and manufacturing transfer.

Education Requirements

BS or MS in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field; equivalent practical experience will be considered.

About the Company

Company: Onto Innovation

Headquarters: Wilmington, MA, United States

Onto Innovation develops process-control solutions for the semiconductor industry, offering optical inspection, 3D metrology, defect inspection, composition analysis, factory analytics, and lithography technologies to improve yield, performance, and reliability across the semiconductor value chain.