Sr Principal PCB Design Engineer

Job Title

Sr Principal PCB Design Engineer

Role Summary

Lead design and development of advanced, high-performance probe card printed circuit boards used in semiconductor test solutions. Serve as the technical authority for complex PCB architectures and drive design quality, manufacturability, and schedule execution across engineering and supply-chain teams.

Provide technical leadership, mentor PCB designers, and improve design methodologies, tooling, and automation across a global organization.

Experience Level

Senior - typically requires 8+ years of relevant PCB design experience. See Education Requirements for the posting's degree-to-experience alternatives.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include technical leadership, hands-on design execution, and cross-functional coordination.

• Lead architecture, layout, and implementation of complex multilayer PCB designs for probe cards and semiconductor test hardware.
• Define stackups, routing strategies, controlled impedance, power distribution networks, and manufacturability constraints.
• Drive design execution from concept through release, ensuring schedule, quality, and manufacturability targets are met.
• Collaborate with signal integrity, electrical design, mechanical engineering, applications, manufacturing, and supply chain teams to optimize performance and reliability.
• Perform and review constraint management, SI/PI implementation, and design rule compliance.
• Lead technical reviews, support root-cause analyses, and resolve design/manufacturing/field issues.
• Establish and improve PCB design methodologies, standards, checklists, automation workflows, and tooling.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to PCB designers across multiple regions.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and proven experience for this role. Degree information and experience-to-degree alternatives are summarized under Education Requirements below.

• Extensive hands-on PCB design experience in high-speed digital, RF, mixed-signal, or semiconductor test applications.
• Expert user of PCB layout tools such as Cadence Allegro or Siemens Xpedition.
• Deep knowledge of controlled-impedance routing, PDN design, power integrity, and signal integrity principles.
• Experience designing complex multilayer HDI boards with BGAs, microvias, and advanced packaging technologies.
• Strong understanding of PCB manufacturing, DFM/DFA, assembly, and test.
• Proven ability to independently drive technically challenging projects and meet schedule and quality objectives.
• Experience leading and mentoring designers and working within global engineering organizations.
• Familiarity with automation, scripting, and process optimization for PCB design workflows.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder-collaboration skills.

Nice-to-have: direct experience with probe cards/semiconductor test hardware, RF-specific design work, and experience deploying new design tools or automation.

Education Requirements

Posting specifies one of the following: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related technical field with a minimum of 8 years related experience; Master’s degree with a minimum of 6 years; PhD with a minimum of 3 years; or equivalent experience. Fields cited include Electrical/Electronics Engineering and related technical disciplines.

About the Company

Company: FormFactor

Headquarters: Livermore, California, United States

FormFactor provides test and measurement technologies and services for the semiconductor industry across the product lifecycle - including characterization, modeling, reliability, design debug, qualification and production test. The company serves customers globally through facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.