Core Engineer - Hardware Systems (Multiple Levels)

We’re looking for a Core Engineer focused on hardware systems to build and evolve the physical edge platform that runs our private AI and data infrastructure in the real world.

You’ll own key portions of the hardware lifecycle end-to-end—from rapid system design and component iteration through validation, testing and certification, procurement, and field reliability. This role has the authority to stop hardware designs, component choices, or shipments that would put reliability, safety, or security at risk. You’ll ensure the hardware provides a secure foundation for the platform, supporting secure boot, secure updates, and overall system integrity.

You will lead silicon platform choices across CPU, GPU, networking, and accelerators, aligning hardware design with workload needs, software support, and vendor roadmaps. You’ll also design systems with clear cost targets, balancing performance and reliability against total cost across manufacturing, deployment, and fleet operation.

This is a hands-on role for someone who thrives in a high-ownership setting and wants to build the infrastructure that makes real-world AI possible.

• Own hardware architecture and rapid iteration cycles across compute, GPU, memory, storage, networking, connectivity, thermal, and power subsystems.

• Lead silicon platform selection across CPU, GPU, networking, and accelerators, aligning performance, software compatibility, vendor roadmaps, and lifecycle support.

• Lead component selection and system integration, balancing performance, reliability, manufacturability, security, and total cost of ownership.

• Define and execute validation plans for performance, thermals, power, stability, security, and field reliability under real operating conditions.

• Ensure hardware provides a secure foundation for the platform, including support for secure boot, signed updates, hardware roots of trust, and system integrity.

• Drive compliance, certification, and testing workflows as required for real-world deployments.

• Own procurement execution with contract manufacturers and vendors, including quoting, timelines, quality controls, and issue resolution.

• Maintain strong vendor relationships and manage suppliers as an extension of the engineering process, with authority to stop designs or shipments that introduce unacceptable risk.

• Maintain crisp design documentation and decision records, using AI tools to accelerate analysis, trade studies, and iteration loops, then refining with engineering judgment.

In your first 3 months, you will have:

• Taken full ownership of a critical hardware subsystem or platform iteration and delivered measurable improvements in reliability, security posture, manufacturability, or cost.

• Established clear design and validation standards that reduce risk and improve confidence across hardware decisions and vendor engagements.

• Demonstrated sound judgment by stopping or redirecting at least one design, component, or supplier path that posed reliability, safety, or security risk.

In your first year, you will be:

• Owning major portions of the hardware roadmap end-to-end, with clear accountability for reliability, security, performance, and total cost across the fleet.

• Driving step-function improvements in validation rigor, supply chain quality, certification readiness, and manufacturing feedback loops.

• Influencing platform direction through high-leverage silicon and system architecture decisions that compound across deployments.

• 6+ years building, validating, and shipping production hardware systems in real-world environments.

• Experience with system-level engineering across compute platforms (CPU/GPU), memory/storage, networking, thermals, and power delivery (e.g., PCIe-based systems, high-performance GPUs, and high-speed networking).

• Experience leading silicon and platform selection decisions in collaboration with software and infrastructure teams, including vendor engagement and roadmap alignment.

• Strong engineering craft: crisp designs, structured validation, operational clarity, and clear documentation (e.g., schematics, BOMs, validation plans, and design reviews).

• Comfort working in ambiguity and making sound trade-offs under real constraints, including cost targets, supply chain risk, and deployment timelines.

• Ownership mindset: outcomes over tasks.

• Rapidly iterating high-performance systems from prototype to production, including bring-up, validation, certification, and field sustainment.

• Managing contract manufacturers and suppliers to deliver predictable quality, security, and cost outcomes at scale.

• Hands-on experience with thermal design, power behavior, performance profiling, and failure analysis in high-performance systems.

• Designing secure-by-default hardware platforms, including secure boot chains, hardware roots of trust (e.g., TPM), signed firmware, and secure update mechanisms.

• Building validation, test automation, and manufacturing QA processes that scale across fleets while controlling total cost of ownership.

• We work in a high-ownership, real-world startup environment where you’ll move fast, build new systems, and see your impact immediately—what you ship runs in the field and drives measurable customer outcomes.

• We work alongside AI every day. Writing static code, docs, or plans “by hand” is no longer accepted—here you’ll use the latest AI tools to iterate and ship faster and to apply AI with our customers at scale.

• You’ll take on elite technical challenges at the frontier of infrastructure, including next-generation cloud and IoT, hardware/software/networking in real-world edge environments, the foundation for data and AI inference, and industry-leading secure systems in demanding operational (OT) settings.

• You’ll learn fast by working with exceptional teammates and collaborating directly with industry leaders as partners in software, AI, and infrastructure.

• Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. This role may be filled at the Senior or Staff level, with a base salary range of $130,000–$155,000 (Senior) or $160,000–$185,000 (Staff).

• Total compensation for this role includes equity in your work. You are eligible for meaningful equity through stock options in an early-stage, high-growth company.

• You are eligible to participate in company benefit plans, which may include health, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) with company match, flexible PTO, paid parental leave, commuter benefits, and relocation and visa support for eligible roles.

At Edgescale AI, we’re deploying AI in the real world—helping customers apply this technology to unlock transformative productivity gains. Our work sits at the intersection of infrastructure, security, networking, and AI, where reliability and performance are non-negotiable and where solutions demand deep, distributed systems thinking.

We’re intensely AI-native. We build with AI, we ship AI, and we use it every day to accelerate how we design, test, deploy, and operate complex systems. If you want to help pave the application of AI in the real world, at global scale, we want to hear from you.

Edgescale AI is building an inclusive, merit-based organization. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on any legally protected status. We value diversity, inclusion, and a shared passion for creating real-world impact.