Factory Manufacturing Engineer

About Etched
Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Job Summary
Etched is hiring a Factory Manufacturing Engineer based in Taiwan to lead on-the-ground execution at our L10 contract manufacturer. You will be the in-factory owner of daily manufacturing performance across assembly and system build/test. This role is directly responsible for ensuring that material, processes, and people align to deliver on build schedules, yield, and quality targets.

You will act as the single-threaded execution lead, driving build readiness, managing bottlenecks, escalating issues, and maintaining real-time visibility into factory performance. This is a highly hands-on role for someone who thrives in fast-paced, high-volume production environments and enjoys working side-by-side with CM teams to deliver results.

Key Responsibilities

• Process Development & Optimization

• Design and implement the processes that transform raw materials into finished products.

• Develop assembly instructions, tooling, jigs, and fixtures to ensure consistency and quality.

• Continuously refine processes to reduce cycle time, waste, and costs (lean manufacturing, Six Sigma methods).

• Equipment & Tooling

• Select, design, or modify production equipment and machinery.

• Ensure machines are set up for maximum throughput and minimal downtime.

• Maintain and improve tooling to keep tolerances tight and quality high.

• Quality & Reliability

• Work closely with quality engineers to monitor defect rates and root causes of failures.

• Implement error-proofing methods (poka-yoke).

• Validate processes to ensure they meet product specifications and customer requirements.

• Production Support

• Act as the go-to problem solvers for factory floor issues.

• Train operators on processes and equipment.

• Respond to line stoppages and quickly troubleshoot issues to minimize downtime.

• Cost & Efficiency Improvements

• Use data analysis to identify inefficiencies in production.

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives like yield improvements, scrap reduction, or automation projects.
• Evaluate tradeoffs between cost, speed, and quality.

You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications):

• 5+ years of experience in semiconductor or server manufacturing execution, OPM, or factory operations roles.
• Proven track record managing day-to-day production at Tier 1 CMs in Taiwan.
• Strong familiarity with assembly and test flows (substrate, package, PCBA, system integration).
• Bilingual proficiency in Mandarin and English, with excellent communication skills.
• Ability to work full-time onsite at the L10 factory and travel within Taiwan as needed.
• Hands-on problem solver with a bias for action in fast-moving production environments.

Strong Candidates May Also Have (Nice-to-have Qualifications)

• Experience with AI ASIC or HBM-based server builds.
• Exposure to test station setup, line balancing, or automation deployment at CMs.
• Background in yield management, quality system audits, or continuous improvement projects.
• Engineering degree (EE, ME, IE) or equivalent technical background.

How We're Different
Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taiwan, 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 as needed.