Thermal Manufacturing Engineer
About Etched
Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.
Job Summary
We are seeking a Thermal Manufacturing Engineer to own the development, qualification, and scaling of thermal management manufacturing processes for Etched's silicon-to-system products. This role is focused on liquid cooling systems—primarily cold plates—and the manufacturing processes required to bring them from prototype to high-volume production.
You will be the technical authority on cold plate fabrication methods including skiving, brazing, friction stir welding, diffusion bonding, and related processes. You'll work hands-on with contract manufacturing partners and internal hardware, thermal, and systems teams to ensure our liquid cooling solutions meet the demanding performance, quality, and reliability requirements of frontier AI infrastructure.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end manufacturing engineering for thermal components and assemblies (focus on cold plates & manifolds), from NPI through mass production.
- Develop, qualify, and optimize cold plate fabrication processes including but not limited to skiving, vacuum brazing, friction stir welding, diffusion bonding, gun drilling, and extrusion-based channel formation.
- Define process parameters, controls, and acceptance criteria for each manufacturing method; establish capability benchmarks (Cpk, yield, leak rate, flatness, pressure drop).
- Partner with thermal and mechanical design teams early in development to drive DFx for liquid cooling system designs.
- Lead process qualification and first-article inspection at CM/supplier sites; own PFMEA, control plans, and process validation documentation.
- Drive root cause analysis and corrective action for manufacturing defects—leaks, delamination, warpage, insufficient bonding, dimensional non-conformance.
- Evaluate and qualify new suppliers and manufacturing technologies for cold plates and thermal interface materials.
- Define and monitor key manufacturing KPIs: yield, leak rate, flatness, cycle time, rework rate, and cost per unit.
- Collaborate with Manufacturing Test to integrate cold plate pressure testing, flow testing, and thermal performance validation into production lines.
- Support failure analysis and closed-loop feedback between factory, design, and reliability teams for thermal-related field issues.
- Build manufacturing dashboards and reporting for cold plate yield, defect pareto, and process capability trends.
- Drive continuous improvement in cold plate cost, cycle time, and quality through systematic DOEs and process optimization.
You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)
- 7+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, or thermal systems manufacturing, with direct hands-on experience producing liquid cold plates or heat exchangers.
- Demonstrated expertise in two or more of the following cold plate fabrication processes: skiving, vacuum brazing, friction stir welding, diffusion bonding, gun drilling, or extrusion-based channel formation.
- Strong understanding of aluminum and copper alloy properties, braze alloy selection, and metallurgical failure modes relevant to thermal hardware.
- Experience qualifying cold plate manufacturers and running process capability studies (Cpk, GR&R) for leak rate, flatness, pressure drop, and thermal resistance.
- Hands-on experience with cold plate inspection and test methods: helium leak testing, hydrostatic pressure testing, flow/pressure-drop characterization, flatness measurement.
- Experience with DFM/DFY reviews for cold plate and liquid cooling system designs.
- Track record of driving root cause analysis and corrective action for cold plate manufacturing defects in production.
- Experience working directly with contract manufacturers and thermal component suppliers, preferably in Asia.
- Familiarity with system-level liquid cooling architectures (single-loop, CDU-based, direct liquid cooling) and how cold plate manufacturing choices affect system-level performance.
- Strong technical documentation skills: PFMEA, control plans, work instructions, first-article inspection reports.
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related field.
- Prior experience in server, HPC, datacenter, or power electronics thermal management is strongly preferred.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
- $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
- Housing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office
- Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
- Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
- Daily lunch and dinner in our office
- Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
How we’re different
Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.
We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.
About Etched.ai
Etched.ai designing specialized chips for language model inference.
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