Senior SSD Hardware Design Engineer | Contract | Santa Clara, CA

Senior SSD Hardware Design Engineer | Contract | Santa Clara, CA | Onsite

Senior SSD Hardware Design Engineer

Location: Santa Clara, CA
Job Type: Contract

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior SSD Hardware Design Engineer to support the design, development, validation, and productization of high-performance storage hardware.

The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on experience with SSD/NVMe hardware, PCIe, NAND, DDR, schematic and PCB design, high-speed hardware validation, and board-level debugging.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan, lead, implement, and debug SSD hardware designs from concept through production.
• Contribute to hardware architecture, schematic design, PCB/layout, documentation, validation, and sustaining engineering.
• Drive interoperability testing across server, storage, and SSD platforms.
• Diagnose and resolve hardware issues in collaboration with engineering teams, external partners, and manufacturing/JDM partners.
• Work with high-speed bus technologies including PCIe, DDR, NAND, SPI, and I2C.
• Evaluate system-level tradeoffs involving mechanical, thermal, power, and signal-integrity considerations.
• Partner with diagnostics and test engineers to review validation strategies and test plans.
• Lead hardware failure analysis, root-cause investigations, and corrective actions.
• Support field issues and customer-related hardware escalations.
• Develop and use automation to improve SSD design, validation, and debugging processes.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers.
• Support hardware development through product introduction and production.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in hardware design and development.
• Strong hands-on experience with schematic design, PCB design/layout, and component selection.
• Direct experience working on SSD, NVMe, or storage hardware designs.
• Strong understanding of PCIe and other high-speed interfaces.
• Experience with NAND Flash and DDR/DRAM technologies.
• Experience validating hardware at electrical, signal-integrity, protocol, and functional levels.
• Hands-on experience using high-speed oscilloscopes and differential probes.
• Strong scripting experience with Python, Bash, or similar languages.
• Experience with SPI and I2C interfaces.
• Strong hardware troubleshooting, failure analysis, and root-cause analysis skills.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced engineering environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Enterprise/datacenter SSD experience.
• PCIe Gen4/Gen5/Gen6 experience.
• High-speed signal integrity and power integrity experience.
• Server/storage interoperability testing.
• Experience with hardware bring-up and production support.
• Hardware test automation using Python/Bash.
• Experience working with external manufacturing or development partners.