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

Senior SSD Hardware Design Engineer

Location: Santa Clara, CA Onsite
Experience: 8+ Years

Job Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior SSD Hardware Design Engineer to join a high-performance storage engineering team. The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on experience designing, validating, debugging, and supporting SSD hardware and high-speed storage systems from concept through production.

This role requires a strong combination of SSD/NVMe hardware design, PCIe, NAND, high-speed signal integrity, hardware validation, and lab debugging experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, validate, and debug SSD hardware from concept through production.
• Contribute to system architecture, schematic design, component selection, documentation, validation, and sustaining engineering.
• Perform hardware validation at electrical, signal integrity, protocol, and functional levels.
• Drive interoperability testing across servers, storage systems, and SSDs.
• Troubleshoot hardware issues and collaborate with internal engineering teams, external partners, and manufacturing/JDM organizations.
• Work with high-speed interfaces including PCIe, DDR, NAND, SPI, and I2C.
• Evaluate mechanical, thermal, power, and signal-integrity tradeoffs.
• Review hardware validation and diagnostic test plans to ensure adequate coverage.
• Lead hardware failure analysis, root-cause investigations, and corrective actions.
• Support field issues and customer escalations through technical investigation and resolution.
• Develop and utilize Python, Bash, or similar scripting for hardware testing, validation, and automation.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in hardware design and development.
• Strong hands-on experience with SSD hardware design and development.
• Strong knowledge of PCIe and NVMe technologies.
• Experience with NAND Flash and storage hardware.
• Experience with schematic design, component selection, and PCB/layout review.
• Experience validating hardware at electrical, SI, protocol, and functional levels.
• Strong understanding of high-speed digital hardware and signal integrity.
• Hands-on experience using high-speed oscilloscopes and differential probes.
• Strong scripting experience with Python, Bash, or similar languages.
• Strong hardware debugging and root-cause analysis skills.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving abilities.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Enterprise storage or data-center hardware experience.
• PCIe Gen4/Gen5/Gen6 experience.
• Experience with board bring-up and interoperability testing.
• Power Integrity / Signal Integrity experience.
• Experience working with ODM/JDM partners.
• Experience with hardware test automation.
• Experience supporting products through production and sustaining phases.

Work Environment: This is an onsite position in Santa Clara, CA and requires regular presence in the engineering environment.