Senior Staff Electrical Engineer
Pleno Inc.
We are seeking a Principal or Senior Staff Electrical Engineer to contribute towards the development of our flagship multi-omic platform. This position requires excellent engineering design and data analysis skills to develop and implement key technologies and subsystem concepts. In the role, you will collaborate with our cross-functional teammates and contractors to specify, design, document, procure, and test our instrument’s PCBA’s, cables, sensors, actuators, and test stands, as well as establish power budgets and computational capabilities. At a Principal or Senior Staff level, you will be expected to establish best practices, collaborate with executive management, and mentor junior engineers.
Your engineering core skills will be complemented by an eagerness for continuous learning to provide the best, and most reliable solutions for our customers, both internally and externally. Our fast-paced environment will depend on and thrive on your multi-disciplined expertise, experience, and decision-making skills.
In this role you will:
- Propose and investigate new electrical architectures to enable our product goals. Develop, own, and specify PCBA requirements in collaboration with other engineering disciplines (mechanical, FW, SW, optical, fluidic, thermal, UX, etc.).
- Contribute to program deliverables like schedules, risk analysis, and planning.
- Manage electrical engineering consultants, developing standard interfaces and SOP’s for those responsible to collaborate in an efficient manner.
- Own and design custom (Printed Circuit Board Assemblies) PCBA’s using Altium via schematic capture, component selection for performance and reliability, PCBA layout, procurement, and test.
- Own (Off-The-Shelf Cable Assemblies) OTS or design custom cables for every interconnection in our platform.
- Verify that cables (and connectors) meet the requirements of all interfaces.
- Own electrical designs from cradle to grave following development plan phase gates, including leading electrical design reviews and technical presentations.
- Understand basic programming or use of low-level scripting languages to assist with hardware development and run basic firmware (Quality Control) QC on your designs.
- Analyze designs using computer-based tools and hand calculations for circuit analysis, including best practices for EMC / EMI prevention.
- Contribute to company scaling needs like PDP, development frameworks, and establishing best practices while working manufacturing and supply chain.
- Balance function, manufacturability, and cost to achieve the best reliability for our platform.
- Hands on experience with lab test equipment (power supplies, multimeters, oscilloscopes, signal generators, soldering iron, etc.) to debug/rework hardware and signal analysis issues
To be successful in this role you have:
- A demonstrated track record of bringing electrical and electromechanical systems to market particularly in a biotechnology or medical device setting.
- Design proficiency with processors, switch mode power supplies, high speed data interfaces, precision analog instrumentation.
- Proficiency with Altium Designer for schematic capture and layout of complex PCBs, including setting up libraries and cable design.
- Fundamentals of signal, power, and grounding integrity, low voltage power regulation, and understanding of transmission line theory for buses.
- Circuit analysis including power, tolerance, and reliability related investigations.
- Experience with MIPI CSI-2, UARTs, SPI, RS-422, RS-485, USB, ISO61010 and ISO13485
- Ability to distill complex technical information into a clear message.
- Ability to quickly adjust to rapidly evolving technology and priorities.
Highly preferred experience includes:
- Experience with SPICE Simulation.
- Experience developing firmware and/or software.
- Experience with designs using PCIe and motherboard design.
- Experience in programming FPGA’s.
- Experience with biotechnology capital equipment or consumables.
- Experience in development cycles from concept to production for at least two products.
Education & Experience:
- Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
- 12+ years of experience in electrical hardware design including schematic capture, PCB layout, and testing
Note: This position is based Onsite in San Diego and will require regular onsite participation at our office/lab in San Diego, CA - to apply you should be resident in the greater San Diego county area or in the process of relocating.
The compensation range presented spans Principal to Senior Staff.
About Pleno
Pleno is a multidisciplinary team of scientists and technologists focused on collaboration and asking questions. We strive to find the best, and most meaningful answers for biochemistry and engineering problems in our mission to build a revolutionary instrument platform.
We are developing multi-omic instrument platforms that will revolutionize biological target detection for a wide array of meaningful applications. Come join us to be a part of the biomedical revolution?
We value our Pleno people and each person's wellbeing is important to us, so in addition to offering industry competitive compensation, we also offer the following:
- Equity - everyone at Pleno has a stake in our success
- Generous company-sponsored contribution to health, dental and vision coverage
- Company contributions to life insurance, short term and long-term disability
- Flexible Paid Time Off - plus 11 paid holidays including a winter break company-wide closure
- Parental Leave - we value our families and include generous parental leave and wage replacement contribution
- Free catered onsite meals daily
- Fitness and wellness facilities and programming
- Regular opportunities to spend social time together like happy hours & team building events - we celebrate our wins
- Available 401k plan
We are hiring for positions onsite at our office/lab in San Diego, CA – all positions are full time employment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, or on the basis of disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form.
Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, level of the position, skills, knowledge and experience, internal equity, and alignment with comparable market data.