Founding Manufacturing Engineer – PCBA

We’re on a mission to make Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design and manufacturing in the USA fast, reliable, and accessible.

We use AI to automate PCB design and are building our first manufacturing facility to control the entire process from design to production. We’ve raised $10M+ from leading VCs and currently design boards for leading quantum computing companies, robotics startups, and Fortune 100s.

New Product Introduction (NPI) is the greatest bottleneck in American electronics. You can’t design PCBs without actually manufacturing them—it’s like writing software without a compiler. Everyone wants to design boards, everyone wants to manufacture at volume, but prototyping and low-volume production is broken. Hundreds of emails back and forth. Constant delays. $1,000 to $10,000+ for even a few simple boards. You can’t iterate, you can’t verify your designs work, and you can’t bring new products to market.

We’re solving this by bringing manufacturing in-house. We design PCBs with manufacturing in mind from the start—optimizing component selection, layer count, trace spacing, everything to make production as seamless as possible. Now we’re building our own factory at Brooklyn Navy Yard with state-of-the-art surface mount technology (SMT) equipment and automating the recipe building and machine programming that makes NPI so slow and expensive.

By building the boards we design, we can deliver working products to our customers faster and unlock a path to scale into larger production runs. We’ve secured the space, acquired the machines, and now we need our founding manufacturing technician to run the line and set the foundation for how we manufacture.

The Role

You’ll be our first manufacturing hire, running our SMT line and setting the foundation for everything we build. This means operating machines, doing hand rework, soldering through-hole components, packing orders, whatever it takes to get boards out the door. But you won’t be doing it the old way.

This isn’t a typical contract manufacturing job. You’ll work directly with our software engineers to automate the manual work that bogs down traditional PCB assembly (PCBA) manufacturing. Because we control PCB design from the start, down to which components we specify, we can eliminate hours of machine programming. Your job is to help us turn that vision into reality.

You’ll operate and maintain our equipment:

• Mycronic pick-and-place
• Solder Jet Printer
• ITW Stencil Printer
• Heller reflow oven
• and more.

You’ll partner with engineers to build AI-driven tools that auto-generate machine recipes and programs. You’ll troubleshoot, improve processes, and set quality standards as we scale.

This is a founding role. You’ll establish how we manufacture, build out your team as we grow, and define what world-class NPI production looks like. You won’t just be running machines. You’ll be building the foundation for how American electronics companies prototype and iterate.

What We’re Looking For

You have real hands-on experience running SMT lines: stencil printers, pick-and-place, reflow, cleaning systems.

You have solid soldering and rework skills for through-hole and SMT components.

You can troubleshoot and fix problems on the fly without needing heavy direction.

You see broken processes and want to rebuild them, not just work around them.

You’re willing to get your hands dirty. This isn’t a management-only role. You’ll be doing rework yourself, packing boxes, kitting parts, whatever needs doing to get boards out the door.

You’re comfortable in a fast-paced startup environment where priorities shift and you need to figure things out as you go.

You can work effectively with software engineers who may not understand manufacturing yet, and you’re excited to teach them.

Bonus:

• Experience with Mycronic, Essemtec, Heller, or similar SMT equipment
• Familiarity with AS9100 or ISO quality management systems
• Background in low-volume/high-mix or NPI environments
• Interest in automation, software, or manufacturing tooling
• Passion for rebuilding American electronics manufacturing

Why This Role Is Different

Most SMT technician jobs are at contract manufacturers running the same builds week after week, spending hours programming machines manually. Here, you’re working with engineers whose only job is to make yours easier, building software that eliminates repetitive work so you can focus on scaling NPI.

You’ll get to:

• Build from zero. Set standards, hire your team, define processes.
• Work with cutting-edge tech. AI-powered manufacturing automation and modern SMT equipment in a brand-new facility.
• Partner with world-class engineers. Collaborate directly with our software team backed by leading AI companies.
• Own real impact. Help bring high-quality electronics manufacturing back to the US.

What we offer:

• Competitive compensation well above market rate
• Meaningful equity in a fast-growing, well-funded startup
• Full medical, dental, vision
• 401(k)
• Free lunch and dinner daily
• Brooklyn Navy Yard location

Location: Brooklyn Navy Yard, one of NYC’s most innovative manufacturing hubs.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every qualification as listed. If you’re excited about this work and ready to help us build something new, we want to hear from you.