PCB Designer

About Northwood:

Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.

Role:

Northwood is looking for a Senior PCB Designer to be our first dedicated PCB layout hire, establishing the discipline from the ground up. You will define the standards, tools, and workflows that our physical design practice is built on, while driving the layout of our next-generation digital compute and power electronics. These complex boards ensure that our antennas can meet high-rate processing needs no matter where they are deployed around the world. As our founding PCB Designer, you won't just be routing traces; you will partner closely with our Electrical, RF, and Antenna engineers from concept to production, setting the technical bar for layout expertise and building the foundation for a team that delivers hardware known for its reliability, scalability, and cost.

Responsibilities:

• Own the physical layout of complex, high-density, high-layer-count PCBs featuring high-speed, high-frequency digital, RF, mixed-signal, and power distribution systems.

• Determine optimum layer stackups, perform component placement, routing feasibility studies, and manage strict high-speed/high-frequency constraint rules.

• Perform ECAD library creation, management, and maintenance for a wide array of active, passive, and high-pin-count components.

• Collaborate across hardware and production teams to ensure strict adherence to Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and Design for Test (DFT) guidelines.

• Generate and release comprehensive documentation packages for fabrication and assembly (Gerbers, ODB++, IPC-2581, drill charts, fabrication drawings).

• Work closely with external PCB fabrication and assembly vendors to resolve technical queries (EQs) and continuously improve internal design rules.

• Evaluate, select, and champion advanced PCB design tools and automation scripts to establish the technical groundwork for scaling the layout function as the team grows.