Etched jobs, judged for you, free

What they do

Etched builds hardware for frontier AI. It designs chips, racks, software, and manufacturing together to make inference fast. Inference is when a trained AI model runs and gives answers. It raised $700M at a $21B valuation, led by Jane Street. Its headquarters is in San Jose.

What they value

• End-to-end owners: fewer people, higher slope, and higher standards.
• Production is the product: everyone is on the critical path.
• Build the machine: what you built tells them more than where you were.
• No wall between engineering and research: technical staff do both.
• The Bitter Lesson: every Posting links this essay on AI research.

Where they hire

Etched is a fully in-person team in San Jose, at Santana Row. 91 of 109 Postings are in San Jose. Others are in Taipei, Taoyuan, and Austin. One security role is remote. Some Taiwan roles ask for Mandarin. No Posting mentions the right to work or visa sponsorship.

Teams and roles

Most open roles are in hardware and software engineering.

• ASIC: RTL design, design verification, physical design, and DFT (design for test) engineers who build the chips.
• Software: inference, infrastructure, supercomputing, and firmware engineers.
• Platform: electrical, mechanical, thermal, PCB layout, and power engineers who build the servers and racks.
• Architecture: performance modeling and inference performance roles.
• Production and operations: manufacturing, test, quality, supply, and logistics roles, many in Taiwan.
• Internships in RTL, physical design, supercomputing, and more.

Engineering pay is usually $150,000 to $275,000, and physical design is $200,000 to $300,000. Most roles add significant equity. Benefits include daily lunch and dinner, and a housing subsidy near the office.

What they look for

Many Postings ask for a set number of years, often 5 or more, in the exact field of the role. Python shows up in about half of the Postings. Hardware roles want deep work with interfaces such as PCIe and Ethernet. Many Postings describe a fast-paced environment. Some ask you to learn modern AI on the job. Several say to apply even if you do not meet every qualification.