Electrical & Hardware
Electrical Engineers for Power Delivery, Board Validation, and Signal & Power Integrity
Some board programs need more than schematic capture. They need engineers who own the power architecture, characterize the electrical envelope, and close signal and power integrity before the design ever goes to layout.
What they do
Power Delivery, Electrical Validation, and SI/PI Sign-Off
Electrical engineers at Game 7 own the electrical envelope of the board. The PDN architecture, the rail-by-rail noise budget, the signal integrity sign-off on every high-speed interface, and the lab characterization that proves the design before it ships. They overlap with hardware engineers on schematic capture, but their center of gravity is electrical analysis and validation, not functional architecture.
We staff them on semiconductor validation platforms, AI accelerator boards, networking switch hardware, and power-dense compute modules. Programs where a 10 mV ripple budget or a 200 ps eye-mask margin is the difference between a working chip and a respin.
Scope of work
- Power delivery network (PDN) design: multi-rail switching and linear regulation, decoupling strategy, target impedance compliance
- Signal integrity analysis: pre- and post-layout simulation for DDR5, PCIe Gen5/6, 100/400G Ethernet, USB4, MIPI
- Power integrity analysis: AC and DC PDN simulation, IR drop, current density, and decap optimization
- Board-level electrical validation: power sequencing, margining, transient response, and rail noise characterization
- EMC/EMI pre-compliance: radiated and conducted emissions debug, filter design, shielding strategy
- Lab bring-up and characterization with high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, VNAs, network analyzers, and power analyzers
- Compliance test execution: PCIe CEM, USB, Ethernet IEEE 802.3, JESD204B/C, and MIPI compliance suites
- Cross-discipline sign-off: working with PCB layout, hardware, mechanical, and silicon validation teams to close electrical risk
Tools & Technologies
The stack our Electrical & Hardware engineers actually ship in.
Program context
The Electrical Engineer Is the One Who Proves the Board Works
Hardware engineers design the schematic. PCB layout engineers route the board. The electrical engineer is the person who closes the loop. Proving that the PDN holds rail noise within budget under worst-case transient load, that every high-speed interface meets its eye mask across PVT, and that EMC pre-compliance does not blow the program schedule. On programs where the silicon is at the edge of what current power and signaling technology supports. 1.8V cores at 200A, 112G PAM4 SerDes across 30 inches of backplane, DDR5 at 6400 MT/s. Electrical engineering is not a checkpoint, it is the entire validation discipline.
FAQ
Common Questions on Electrical & Hardware Staffing
What's the difference between an electrical engineer and a hardware engineer on a board program?+
The titles overlap, but the centers of gravity differ. A hardware engineer typically owns the schematic. Processor selection, memory topology, connector pinout, functional architecture. An electrical engineer typically owns the electrical envelope. Power delivery network, rail noise budgets, signal and power integrity sign-off, and board-level lab characterization. Some teams combine both roles in one engineer; others separate them, especially on power-dense or high-speed programs where SI/PI is a full-time discipline. We ask which split your program uses before submitting.
When does a program need a dedicated SI/PI engineer?+
When any of the following are true: the board carries DDR5 or higher, PCIe Gen5/6, 56G+ SerDes, or 100G+ Ethernet; the PDN feeds a high-current core rail with strict ripple specs (typical of AI accelerators and modern CPU/GPU silicon); the program has had previous spins fail in compliance or eye-mask testing; or EMC pre-compliance is on the critical path. On these programs, treating SI/PI as a part-time responsibility of the hardware engineer is a program risk. We staff dedicated SI/PI engineers as a separate profile from general hardware engineering.
Can Game 7 place electrical engineers specifically for board-level validation phases?+
Yes. Validation-phase engagements. Typically 3 to 6 months covering first-prototype bring-up through pre-compliance and qualification. Are one of the most common targeted electrical engineering placements we make. These engineers need lab fluency (high-bandwidth scopes, VNAs, current probes, power analyzers), the ability to debug to root cause across the hardware/firmware boundary, and the discipline to document validation results in a form the certification or qualification team can use.
Related disciplines
Cross-Links Across the Team
Board Hardware Engineers from Schematic to Bring-Up
Schematic capture and board architecture partners.
PCB Layout Engineers →High-Speed PCB Layout Engineers: DDR5, SerDes, RF
Layout specialists who implement the electrical sign-off constraints.
Mechanical Engineers →Mechanical Engineers for Thermal Design, Chassis, and NPI on Dense Hardware Programs
Thermal and chassis engineers who co-design with the electrical envelope.
Let's talk
Need an Electrical Engineer?
Tell us the program. We'll send a shortlist of 2-4 qualified engineers within days.