PCBA Manufacturing Engineer

The role

This role supports production and continuous improvement of printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) used in Industrial Compute hardware platforms. You will partner with design, quality, and supply chain teams to resolve production issues and improve manufacturing yield.

What you will do

• Own sustaining manufacturing engineering for PCBA production across multiple hardware platforms.
• Drive root cause investigations for manufacturing defects, field failures, and production escapes.
• Partner with Hardware Design Engineers to improve manufacturability (DFM/DFA/DFT).
• Support engineering change orders (ECOs) and manufacturing change implementation.
• Work directly with contract manufacturers to improve production yield, cycle time, and quality.
• Analyze manufacturing data to identify recurring process issues and improvement opportunities.
• Develop corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) for manufacturing and supplier quality issues.
• Support failure analysis activities including electrical, functional, and process investigations.
• Improve manufacturing documentation, work instructions, assembly processes, and test procedures.
• Collaborate with Test Engineering to improve production test coverage and manufacturing diagnostics.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years supporting high-volume PCBA manufacturing.
• Experience with SMT manufacturing, PCB fabrication, and electronic assembly processes.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing process control, yield improvement, and statistical analysis.
• Experience performing root cause analysis using methodologies such as 8D, 5 Why, Fishbone, or FMEA.
• Experience working with contract manufacturers and global supply chains.
• Ability to interpret schematics, BOMs, assembly drawings, and manufacturing documentation.
• Excellent cross-functional communication and project management skills.

Nice to have

• Experience with server, accelerator, networking, storage, or AI hardware platforms.
• Familiarity with ICT, Flying Probe, Boundary Scan, Functional Test, and System-Level Test.
• Experience supporting high-speed PCBAs involving GPUs, CPUs, memory, PCIe, Ethernet, or high-speed interconnects.
• Knowledge of IPC standards (IPC-A-610, IPC-6012, IPC-7711/7721).
• Experience with manufacturing execution systems (MES), PLM systems, and engineering change management.
• Enjoy solving complex manufacturing problems using data and structured root cause analysis.
• Like working directly with manufacturing partners and factory teams.
• Can bridge hardware design and manufacturing execution.
• Have strong troubleshooting skills across electronics, assembly processes, and production testing.
• Enjoy continuous improvement and process optimization.

About the company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. Its Industrial Compute organization builds advanced AI infrastructure ecosystems.