About the Role
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Hardware Engineering develops and supports the physical infrastructure behind Oracle Cloud from enterprise compute and storage servers to the hardware platforms that power large-scale cloud, data center, and AI workloads.
We are seeking a Principal Electrical Engineer – Server Hardware Validation to join our OCI Hardware Engineering team On-Site in Burlington, Massachusetts. This is a hands-on technical role for an experienced electrical or hardware engineer who enjoys solving difficult problems at the board, subsystem, and server-platform level.
You will lead complex hardware validation and sustaining engineering efforts throughout the product lifecycle, from New Product Introduction (NPI) through production. You will develop validation strategies, qualify components and alternate sources, investigate hardware failures, and work across engineering, suppliers, and manufacturing to drive issues to root cause and resolution.
This is a highly cross-functional role requiring deep technical collaboration with firmware, software, operating system, and field service engineering teams to perform rigorous root-cause analysis and rapidly develop, implement, and validate effective corrective actions.
This role works closely with our hardware lab in Burlington and provides an opportunity to have direct technical impact on the reliability, quality, and manufacturing continuity of Oracle's server infrastructure.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities
- Lead system- and subsystem-level electrical validation for server hardware across NPI and sustaining engineering activities.
- Develop validation strategies, test plans, test coverage, procedures, and technical reports for complex hardware changes and electrical subsystems.
- Perform hands-on hardware troubleshooting, fault isolation, and rigorous root-cause analysis (RCCA) for complex board-, subsystem-, server-, factory-, field-, and customer-level failures.
- Collaborate deeply with firmware, software, operating system, diagnostics, field service, manufacturing, and other engineering teams to isolate issues and determine root cause.
- Drive corrective actions from investigation through implementation and validation, balancing technical rigor with the need to resolve critical hardware issues quickly.
- Lead qualification of alternate-source components and support Approved Vendor List (AVL) and end-of-life component activities to maintain manufacturing continuity.
- Analyze complex hardware changes and determine appropriate validation coverage based on interactions across electrical subsystems, interfaces, firmware, software, and system configurations.
- Use high-speed oscilloscopes, differential probes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and other laboratory instrumentation to characterize and troubleshoot electrical behavior.
- Investigate signal integrity, power integrity, timing, noise, interoperability, and other electrical issues affecting system performance and reliability.
- Validate high-speed interfaces and electrical subsystems across varying hardware, firmware, load, and environmental conditions.
- Partner with electrical design, CAD, suppliers, manufacturing, and other engineering teams on validation, qualification, and complex technical issues.
- Review schematics, component specifications, PCB layouts, and other engineering documentation as part of validation, qualification, and root-cause investigations.
- Document specifications, validation plans, test results, technical findings, constraints, corrective actions, and engineering decisions.
- Contribute to formal design reviews and provide validation-driven feedback to improve product quality, reliability, and manufacturability.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers, helping teams work through ambiguous and technically challenging validation and debug problems.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field and 7+ years of relevant technical engineering experience; Master's degree and 5+ years; Doctorate and 3+ years; or 11+ years of relevant technical engineering experience without a degree.
- Strong systems-level electrical or hardware engineering background, including validation and troubleshooting of complex computing, server, embedded, or related hardware platforms.
- Proven ability to develop and lead complex hardware validation and qualification efforts.
- Deep hands-on proficiency with high-speed oscilloscopes and laboratory instrumentation, including differential probes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and related measurement tools.
- Strong knowledge of electrical signal integrity concepts, including timing, jitter, noise, and frequency-domain analysis.
- Demonstrated ability to debug complex board- and subsystem-level hardware issues using schematics, electrical measurements, test data, and systematic root-cause analysis.
- Strong analytical, diagnostic, and problem-solving skills with the ability to investigate ambiguous failures spanning multiple hardware and system domains.
- Ability to collaborate deeply across hardware, firmware, software, operating system, diagnostics, field service, manufacturing, supplier, and other engineering teams.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly document and communicate complex technical findings.
- Technical leadership and mentoring skills, with the ability to guide engineers through complex validation, debug, and root-cause investigations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Background in the design, validation, or sustaining of enterprise servers, data center infrastructure, or other large-scale computing platforms.
- Knowledge of Intel, AMD, or Ampere processor-based system architectures and NVIDIA or AMD GPU-based server architectures.
- Familiarity with AI infrastructure and the hardware requirements of high-performance GPU-based computing platforms.
- High-speed interface validation, electrical compliance testing, and Ethernet standards knowledge.
- Strong understanding of power integrity, power delivery, PMICs, signal integrity, and server electrical subsystems.
- Component and alternate-source qualification, Approved Vendor List (AVL) management, and end-of-life component mitigation expertise.
- NPI and production hardware lifecycle knowledge, including qualification and sustaining activities after product launch.
- Proven success investigating customer, field, factory, or production hardware failures and driving RCCA and corrective actions through validation and closure.
- Proficiency with Linux and Windows environments and Python or similar programming languages for validation automation, data analysis, or test workflows.
- Familiarity with schematic capture, board-level electrical design, FPGA-based hardware, PCB layout, and design-review processes.
Location: On-Site | Burlington, MA
Qualifications
Education and/or Experience:
11 years of experience in technical engineering
OR
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 7 years of experience in technical engineering
OR
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 5 years of experience in technical engineering
OR
Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3 years of experience in technical engineering.
Job Skills:
Same as previous level plus;
Field-Programmable Gate Array Design: Demonstrated skill in designing and validating FPGA-based hardware solutions.
Preferred Job Qualifications
Education and/or Experience:
11 years of experience in technical engineering
OR
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 7 years of experience in technical engineering
OR
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 5 years of experience in technical engineering
OR
Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3 years of experience in technical engineering.
Additional Qualifications (as needed)
Electromagnetic Compatibility:
5 years of experience in safety and electromagnetic compatibility compliance.
Company
Only Oracle brings together the data, infrastructure, applications, and expertise to power everything from industry innovations to life-saving care. And with AI embedded across our products and services, we help customers turn that promise into a better future for all. Discover your potential at a company leading the way in AI and cloud solutions that impact billions of lives.
True innovation starts when everyone is empowered to contribute. That’s why we’re committed to growing a workforce that promotes opportunities for all with competitive benefits that support our people with flexible medical, life insurance, and retirement options. We also encourage employees to give back to their communities through our volunteer programs.
We’re committed to including people with disabilities at all stages of the employment process. If you require accessibility assistance or accommodation for a disability at any point, let us know by emailing [email protected] or by calling 1-888-404-2494 in the United States.
Oracle is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Oracle will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.