Principal/Staff Electrical Engineer

Job Title

Principal/Staff Electrical Engineer

Role Summary

Lead the design, verification, and validation of core electronic systems for brain-computer interface research products. The role owns PCBAs and system-level electrical architecture and delivers manufacturable hardware, test infrastructure, and documentation to ensure reproducible scientific results.

Work closely with cross-functional teams, vendors, and manufacturing partners; mentor engineers and establish hardware integration best practices.

Experience Level

Senior (Principal / Staff level). Years of experience not specified in the posting.

Responsibilities

Primary technical and leadership responsibilities:

• Architect, design, simulate, and verify complex electronics integrating custom ASICs, FPGAs, and high-speed digital interfaces.
• Own board and system-level concerns: SI/PI, grounding, clocking, EMC/EMI, thermal behavior, and production transfer.
• Lead PCB bring-up, debug, and validation; define and document performance criteria and acceptance tests.
• Develop automated test and characterization infrastructure, including custom hardware and firmware for integration and validation.
• Design electronic instrumentation to convert bench experiments into repeatable, documented workflows.
• Manage technical relationships with design vendors, assembly, and test houses; define DFT and production requirements.
• Collaborate with product, science, and software teams to meet performance and usability goals.
• Mentor and establish engineering standards, design review processes, and hardware integration practices.

Requirements

Key technical qualifications and skills. Items marked "Must" are required based on the posting; "Nice-to-have" items are additional.

• Must: Proven experience designing complex electronic systems, including architecture, board bring-up, and manufacturing transfer.
• Must: Advanced mixed-signal expertise: low-noise analog design combined with high-speed digital integration.
• Must: Strong debugging skills and proficiency with electronic test equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, network analyzers, etc.).
• Must: Practical programming experience in Python and C/C++ for test automation, firmware, and hardware integration.
• Must: Systems-oriented mindset focusing on calibration, measurement uncertainty, and reproducibility.
• Nice-to-have: Prior experience with custom ASICs, FPGA integration, high-speed serial interfaces, and EMC/thermal design for medical or research-grade instrumentation.
• Nice-to-have: Experience establishing DFT strategies and working with contract manufacturers and test houses.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Merge Labs

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA, USA

Merge Labs is a research lab developing advanced brain-computer interfaces that integrate biological and artificial intelligence to enhance human capabilities. The team focuses on safe, high-bandwidth neural interfaces, instrumentation, and automated test systems to accelerate scientific workflows and improve data reliability.