Electrical Engineer

About Subsense

Subsense is a deep-tech company developing the world’s first non-surgical, bidirectional brain-computer interface powered by plasmonic and magnetoelectric nanoparticles. Our mission is to unlock direct communication between the human brain and AI - starting with medical applications such as stroke recovery and moving toward cognitive enhancement for healthy users. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Subsense brings together leading scientists and engineers to redefine the future of human–machine interaction.

The Opportunity

Design and develop electronics and integrated hardware for emerging neurotechnology and medical-device systems. You’ll start on a magnetic navigation project within our Bioengineering team, building the hardware that generates, drives, and measures magnetic fields. Over time you’ll support other experimental hardware as technical needs evolve. You’ll take hardware from early concepts and lab prototypes through characterization, verification, and preparation for manufacturing. You’ll work closely with specialists in bioengineering, neuroscience, mechanical engineering, and software, and you’ll translate experimental requirements into reliable, measurable system performance.

This role suits a hands-on electrical engineer who enjoys building and troubleshooting hardware in a research lab, working across disciplines, and making sound engineering decisions as requirements evolve.

What You'll Own

• Design drive, control, and interface electronics for neurotechnology and medical-device systems, including waveform generation, power amplification, impedance matching, sensing, and transducer or actuator interfaces.
• Develop analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits, owning schematic capture, PCB layout collaboration, board bring-up, and debugging.
• Translate application and experimental requirements into electrical specifications, including operating frequency, output power, timing, duty cycle, channel synchronization, and sensing requirements.
• Integrate transducers or other stimulation/sensing hardware, power supplies, embedded controllers, sensors, and software into working prototypes.
• Build automated test setups to characterize electrical performance, transducer loading, efficiency, thermal behavior, and repeatability.
• Partner with acoustics specialists to correlate electrical measurements with acoustic output and identify the causes of performance variation.
• Implement monitoring, fault detection, interlocks, and protective circuitry appropriate to the device’s intended use.
• Document design decisions, test methods, and verification results; contribute to risk analysis and design reviews.
• Work with suppliers and manufacturing partners to improve component selection, assembly, testability, and reliability.

What You Bring

Must-have experience

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering with a strong electronics focus, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience developing electronics for medical devices, neurotechnology, instrumentation, or related experimental hardware, ideally with exposure to a research lab environment.
• Strong grounding in analog and mixed-signal design, power electronics, signal integrity, grounding, and noise reduction.
• Experience designing drive, interface, or impedance-matching circuits for transducers or coils, actuators, sensors, or other electrically driven hardware, with an understanding of how electrical loading affects system performance.
• Ability to take a PCB from schematic through bring-up and systematic troubleshooting.
• Proficiency with oscilloscopes, signal generators, and relevant impedance, network, or spectrum measurement equipment.
• Experience using Python, MATLAB, or similar tools for instrument control, data analysis, and test automation.
• Ability to translate ambiguous requirements into practical experiments and clearly communicate findings across engineering and scientific teams.

Nice to have

• Experience with focused ultrasound, neuromodulation, neural interfaces, bioelectronic systems, or other therapeutic or diagnostic medical-device technologies.
• Multichannel or phased-array systems, beamforming electronics, and precise phase and amplitude control.
• FPGA, microcontroller, or embedded firmware development for waveform generation, timing, and system control.
• Low-noise receive electronics, transmit/receive switching, or ultrasound signal acquisition.
• Experience with system characterization and calibration, such as hydrophone measurements, acoustic field mapping, electro-acoustic calibration, or analogous measurement methods for other sensing/stimulation modalities.
• Strongly preferred: Experience designing or building magnetic coils, or experience with magnetic navigation or field generation systems.

Why You’ll Thrive at Subsense

You'd be joining a small team developing a non-surgical, bidirectional brain-computer interface powered by plasmonic and magnetoelectric nanoparticles. You’ll help translate early research into working technology, with the opportunity to influence both the platform and how we build it.

A few things that make this different

• Own meaningful technical work: Take projects from early R&D through functional prototypes, with room to test ideas, solve complex problems, and shape design decisions.
• Build across disciplines: Work hands-on with ultrasound, electronics, and instrumentation alongside scientists and engineers in neuroscience, nanotechnology, and AI.
• Help shape a novel platform: Contribute to technology with the potential to restore neurological function and, over time, enable direct brain-to-AI communication.
• Make a visible impact: Join a team where your contributions directly influence technical progress, with equity that lets you share in the company’s growth.

Benefits that support life beyond work

• Health coverage with meaningful employer support – Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Time to rest and recharge – 15 vacation days, 7 sick days, and 10 paid holidays, plus a company-wide winter shutdown from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day.
• An easier commute – Commuter benefits to help make getting to work a little easier.
• Support for growing families – Paid parental leave includes 4 weeks of maternity disability leave and 8 weeks of baby-bonding leave, subject to eligibility.
• Time together as a team – Team outings, lunches, happy hours, and celebrations that create opportunities to connect beyond day-to-day work.

Help build what comes next

If you’re drawn to hard problems, hands-on discovery, and the opportunity to turn research into working technology, we’d like to hear from you.

Subsense is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.