Forward Deployment Engineer - San Jose, United States
$208,437 - $300,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 27 October 2026 by the employer.
Deploy and validate accelerator-based systems across PCIe, SerDes, and 100GbE/400GbE networking infrastructure.
About the role
Etched is seeking a Forward Deployment Engineer in San Jose, CA to lead end-to-end deployment of accelerator-based systems in datacenter environments. The role spans hardware, firmware, Linux operating systems, drivers, and high-speed networking stacks including RDMA and 100GbE/400GbE.
What you'll do
- Lead deployment of accelerator-based systems in datacenter environments, covering installation, bring-up, validation, and customer acceptance. - Diagnose and resolve system-level issues across hardware, firmware, Linux OS, drivers, and networking stacks including TCP/IP, RDMA, and 100GbE/400GbE infrastructure. - Perform root-cause analysis of field failures, reproduce issues with internal engineering teams, and drive corrective actions, patches, or design improvements. - Develop and maintain deployment tooling, diagnostics, telemetry, dashboards, and structured runbooks to support reliability and observability. - Coordinate firmware updates, configuration changes, and hotfix rollouts with minimal downtime while working with hardware, software, deployment, RMA, and sustaining teams.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree (or foreign equivalent) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, Network Engineering, or a closely related field. - 3 years of experience in the job offered or related occupations. - 3 years of experience in schematic review, PCB layout validation, and debugging high-speed digital interfaces including PCIe, SerDes, and memory subsystems. - 3 years of experience working with Linux-based systems for bring-up, validation, debugging, and documenting findings through validation reports and technical documentation. - 3 years of programming experience in C/C++ and Python for hardware validation and debugging workflows. - 3 years of experience with power architecture design, troubleshooting, and power distribution networks. - 1.25 years of experience with system bring-up, validation, and debug of datacenter-class and HPC server platforms (such as NVIDIA HGX / GB systems). - Willingness to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.
Skills: PCIe, SerDes, schematic review, PCB layout, system bring-up
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 53-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1022
|
Median days open
53 d
|
Median salary
$155k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Etched | All employers we track in this specialty (1022 roles · 100 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 10 | 1022 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 42 | 6310 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 132 d | 53 d (+79 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $155k |
Skills observed across this category: PCIe, SerDes, schematic review, PCB layout, system bring-up
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 76 open roles · median 40 d
- KLA Corporation · 63 open roles · median 54 d
- Teradyne · 58 open roles · median 40 d
- Applied Materials · 49 open roles · median 68 d
- NVIDIA · 49 open roles · median 71 d
- AMD · 43 open roles · median 57 d
How we counted: 1022 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 100 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 28 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.