Forward Deployment Engineer at Etched (San Jose, CA)
Etched· San Jose, CA·
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
Etched, Inc. seeks a Forward Deployment Engineer in San Jose, CA. Job Duties: Lead end-to-end deployment of accelerator-based systems in large-scale datacenter environments, including installation, bring-up, validation, and customer acceptance; Diagnose and resolve complex system-level issues across hardware, firmware, Linux OS, drivers, and high-speed networking stacks, including TCP/IP, RDMA, and 100GbE/400GbE infrastructure; Perform root-cause analysis of field failures, reproduce issues in partnership with internal engineering teams, and drive corrective actions, patches, or design improvements; Develop and maintain deployment tooling, diagnostics, telemetry, dashboards, and structured runbooks to improve system reliability, observability, and repeatability at scale; and Coordinate firmware updates, configuration changes, and hotfix rollouts with minimal downtime, while collaborating cross-functionally with hardware, software, deployment, RMA, and sustaining engineering teams. Position requires up to 30% domestic and international travel.
Position requires a Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, Network Engineering, and other closely related degrees, and 3 years of experience in the job offered or related occupations. Must have 3 years of experience in the following skills: Proficiency in schematic review, PCB layout validation, and debugging of high-speed digital interfaces, including PCIe, SerDes, and memory subsystems; Working with Linux-based systems for bring-up, validation, and debugging, and documenting findings through validation reports and technical documentation; Programming experience in C/C++ and Python for hardware validation, and debugging workflows; and Strong knowledge of power architecture design and troubleshooting, and power distribution networks. Must have 1.25 years of experience with system bring-up, validation, and debug of datacenter-class and HPC server platforms (e.g, NVIDIA HGX / GB systems).
Salary Range: $208,437.00 - $300,000.00 / year. To apply online at etched.com/join with Ref#QC0926
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.