PCB Rework and Soldering Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

About the role

We're hiring a top-tier rework and soldering specialist to own hands-on rework of every board we build. You'll be the person our hardware engineers trust with the boards nobody else can fix: pulling a large MOSFET off a heavy-copper board or swapping a fine-pitch LQFP on a prototype so bring-up can continue tonight, and turning a batch of bad boards into good ones by the end of the week.

The Bot Company builds robots with actuators. Our boards range from small, densely packed boards with 0201 passives and long flex circuits to heavy-copper power boards that drive the actuators. They're built by contract manufacturers and come to our lab for bring-up, modification and repair.

The best rework is invisible. If your joints look like they came off a reflow line, we'd like to meet you.

What you'll do

Your time splits roughly evenly between R&D rework and batch rework, with the occasional full board build.

R&D rework (~50%) — fast-turn work alongside the engineer who designed the board.

1. Implement engineering changes on prototypes: cut traces, add bodge wires in fine magnet wire, swap values, add or remove parts, often same day.
2. Remove and replace fine-pitch LQFPs, QFNs and other leaded and bottom-terminated parts cleanly, with no bridges, lifted leads or damaged pads.
3. Remove and replace large power MOSFETs, thick connectors and other high-thermal-mass parts on heavy-copper boards, using preheat to get good joints without damaging the board or nearby parts.
4. Repair lifted pads and damaged traces, including on flex circuits (FPCs) and rigid-flex.
5. Rework 0201 passives on small, densely packed boards.
6. Add test points, probe wires and sense leads for bring-up and measurements.

Batch rework (~50%) — making a fix repeatable across many boards.

1. Apply a rework consistently across batches of tens to hundreds of boards returned from our contract manufacturers.
2. Write short rework instructions (photos plus steps) so a fix can be repeated in-house or handed back to the CM.
3. Inspect and document every board: before/after photos and a per-board log of what was done.
4. Triage failures and identify solder defects (bridging, voids under thermal pads, poor wetting on heavy copper, tombstoning, cold joints), and feed root causes back to engineering and the CM.

Occasionally

1. Hand-build a full board from bare PCB for a quick-turn prototype.
2. Own the rework bench: microscopes, stations, tips, nozzles and consumables. Recommend equipment we should buy.

What we're looking for

Hands-on skill is what matters most. We care far more about what you can do at the bench than about your resume.

1. 5+ years of daily, hands-on rework of fine-pitch, densely packed assemblies.
2. Expert, demonstrable fine-pitch work: LQFP/QFP removal and drag soldering with no bridges or bent leads, plus QFN/DFN parts with exposed pads and 0201 passives.
3. Expert at high-heat work: large power MOSFETs (e.g. D2PAK, TOLL), heavy copper planes and big connectors, using preheat and bottom-side heat to get fully wetted joints without cooking the board.
4. Fluent with the full toolset: micro-tip and high-wattage irons, preheaters and hot plates, hot-air and IR rework stations, tweezers, solder wick, flux and stencils.
5. Steady hands, a sharp eye and the patience to get every joint right.
6. Flex and rigid-flex rework without delaminating, scorching coverlay or cracking traces.
7. Pad and trace repair: micro-wiring, jumper wires, epoxy pad replacement.
8. Solid process knowledge: thermal profiles, moisture-sensitive parts (MSL and baking), flux selection and cleaning, ESD control.
9. Workmanship to IPC-A-610 Class 2/3 and rework per IPC-7711/7721. IPC certification is a plus, but skill outranks certificates.
10. Can read schematics, assembly drawings and BOMs well enough to find a net or refdes and carry out a change.
11. Careful, consistent documentation habits.

Nice to have

None of these are required, but they let you close the loop on a board yourself.

1. Bench debug: bringing up a board on a current-limited bench supply, finding shorts with a DMM or IR camera, basic oscilloscope use.
2. Flashing firmware from a Linux laptop on the command line
3. Experience in a hardware startup or R&D lab, ideally robotics or consumer electronics.