EE Hardware System Engineer (TW) at Etched (Taipei, Taiwan)
Etched· Taipei, Taiwan·
Role details
Etched at a glance
Transformer-specific ASICs and rack-scale systems that hardwire the transformer into silicon for faster, cheaper AI inference.
Etched designs transformer-specific ASICs and full rack-scale inference systems. Its Sohu chip hardwires the transformer architecture directly into silicon, trading a GPU's general-purpose flexibility for far higher throughput, lower latency, and better power efficiency on AI inference. Customers buy complete co-designed clusters, chip plus rack plus software, not standalone chips.
$800M raised · latest: $500M · led by Stripes · Dec 2025 (reported Jan 2026) · backed by Stripes, Peter Thiel, Ribbit Capital, VentureTech Alliance
Job description
About Etched
Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. Co-designing 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
Etched is looking for exceptional hardware system engineers to join our team. The candidate will be responsible for schematic design for our accelerator module, and will help us pave the way for manufacturing scale.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead board development for Etched’s accelerator systems
- Work with Signal Integrity, PCB, and Mechanical Engineering to solve system level design problems
- Collaborate with ODMs/OEMs on system requirements, including bringup and validation plans
- Understand datacenter customer requirements and ensure our servers meet them
- Bring up of system base board and mezzanine card
- Create and manage PCBA documentation including BOMs and special assembly processes
- Define test plans and test equipment for bring-up and manufacturing
You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)
- 5-10 years of experience in complex server/switch system design and development
- Extensive experience on 100G Ethernet, PCIe Gen5, I2C, SPI, UART interfaces
- Familiar with modern AI/datacenter system architecture
- Proven track record of designing systems alongside silicon
- Deep understanding of datacenter needs, especially with respect to high power (>10 kW) AI servers
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 incompleteideas.net/BitterLesson.html. 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 (Santana Row), 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.
Why work at Etched
- Mission-driven, high-impact engineering: “Building the hardware for superintelligence” – the company is solving one of the hardest problems in compute (inference efficiency) with a focused team.
- Top-tier team and learning environment: Colleagues from Google, NVIDIA, Apple, Tesla, Broadcom, and Intel; exposure to full-stack chip-to-system design.
- In-office culture: All roles are in-office (Cupertino and San Jose, CA). The company emphasizes on-site collaboration for hardware development. Notable perks are not heavily advertised, but compensation is competitive for the AI hardware space (equity-heavy).
- Growth trajectory: 141% headcount growth YoY, hundreds of open roles, and a $5B valuation signal strong backing and career acceleration potential.
- Intellectual challenge: Work on chip simulation, RTL design, system validation, or software infrastructure for cutting-edge AI inference.