Senior Hardware Engineer

Senior Hardware Engineer

Location: Garden Grove, CA (on site role)

Terms: Fulltime Salary

Beech Valley Solutions is leading this search on behalf of Trace, an AI-powered sports camera company based in Garden Grove, CA.

Trace builds AI-powered sports cameras that automatically film and edit video highlights for every player on the field. Over 10,000+ cameras deployed worldwide, capturing millions of highlights each season for players, coaches, and families. This year we need to more than double production of our current camera and bring up US manufacturing all while developing new hardware for other verticals. This is an exciting range of challenges to get to a new scale of HW and that's what you'll be driving.

We're a lean, fast-moving engineering team tackling the full stack of challenges — from optics to embedded systems to cloud infrastructure — to deliver reliable, production-scale hardware that just works in the field. At Trace, we value initiative over hierarchy and ownership over narrow roles. Engineers here are trusted to identify problems, chase them down, and deliver solutions end-to-end.

If you're excited by the idea of building and sustaining real hardware used every day in the real world — and you want to work in a culture that rewards autonomy, agency, and curiosity — this role is for you. If you want to learn more about building at Trace check out this interview with our Director of Hardware.

The Role

As a Hardware Engineer, you'll be a critical member of Trace's hardware team, working directly with the Director of Hardware and firmware/software teammates to design, validate, and sustain the thousands of AI-powered sports cameras deployed worldwide. This role demands curiosity, technical breadth, and a proactive mindset — you'll be chasing down issues across PCBs, firmware, and hardware systems, and seeing them through to resolution.

How You Will Contribute

• Lead validation and bring-up of new PCB designs, from schematic review to hands-on testing, debugging, and DFM optimization
• Analyze firmware logs to troubleshoot in partnership with the firmware team
• Design, execute, and refine system-level tests to ensure camera reliability, including environmental stress testing, accelerated life testing, and performance validation at scale
• Conduct comprehensive failure analysis on hardware returned from the field (FACA/RCA) - implementing design improvements, and incorporating reliability considerations
• Proactively address reliability engineering aspects, such as component selection for longevity, thermal management, and mechanical improvements
• Jump in wherever needed: from advanced electrical debug to recommending mechanical enhancements or evaluating alternative components for supply chain resilience.
• Document design validation processes, debug findings, failure analyses, and reliability solutions for internal knowledge sharing and team enablement
• Or… you may need to ship packages if we're in the rush season - this is a senior role, but at Trace our CEO has packed a box to ship and you may too, don't apply unless you're willing (sometimes) to jump in and contribute however needed

What we need to See

• BS or higher in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 5+ years of professional experience in hardware engineering
• Demonstrated expertise working on and shipping production-scale electronic/hardware products to market
• Proven track record in failure analysis, reliability engineering, and testing methodologies, including root cause investigation, implementation of corrective actions
• Hands-on experience debugging hardware using tools such as DMM, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or serial debuggers
• Proficiency in reading schematics and interpreting low-level logs for system-level diagnostics
• Programming ability in C/C++ and/or Python for test automation, firmware bring-up, or debugging

What you need to be a standout applicant

• Familiarity with consumer electronics or IoT hardware at scale (embedded systems and firmware-hardware integration thereof)
• Side-projects or personal builds demonstrating initiative and agency are a strong plus
• Proficiency and experience in using Generative-AI tools to accelerate your work is a strong plus

What We Value

• Initiative and agency: we're a low-management culture where you'll own problems end-to-end
• Comfort with broad responsibilities: from PCB bring-up to 3D printing mechanical fixes, no aspect of hardware is “out of scope”
• Bias toward action: able to investigate and resolve issues with imperfect information
• Curiosity and breadth: interest in working across hardware, firmware, and systems design
• Passion for sports and technology — we work hard to bring both together

Compensation

Your base salary will be determined based on experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 158,000 USD - 196,000 USD with opportunity for annual bonus compensation.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Trace is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.