Silicon Product & Test Engineer

Proto is accelerating the world's transition to an open economy with products that increase access and independence for everyone. We're building Bitkey, a simple and safe self-custody bitcoin wallet that will put customers in control, as well as hardware and software that will help decentralize bitcoin mining and enable new and innovative use cases for bitcoin mining. We're developing these products in the open - you can read more about them at bitkey.build and mining.build. Within Proto, our Bitcoin Products team delivers the product and go-to-market strategy, software, firmware, and custom silicon needed to make Bitkey and our ambitious mining initiatives a reality. Come build the future of money with us!

The Role

We are looking for a Product & Test Engineer to drive post-silicon productization of our bitcoin mining ASICs from silicon bring-up through high-volume manufacturing. This role spans silicon characterization, yield optimization, test strategy development, correlation across multiple platforms, and system-level performance optimization.

This is a highly cross-functional role working across ASIC Design, ATE, Bench, Systems, Reliability, Foundry, and OSAT partners. The ideal candidate is hands-on, data-driven, comfortable operating in ambiguity, and excited about building and scaling complex hardware products in a fast-moving environment.

You Will

• Drive post-silicon bring-up, characterization, qualification, and productization activities from first silicon through mass production.
• Develop and optimize wafer sort (CP) and final test (FT) screening strategies to improve power, performance, yield, quality, and DPPM.
• Develop, debug, and maintain ATE test programs and screening methodologies for advanced-node ASICs.
• Define and execute characterization plans across process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) conditions.
• Perform silicon data analysis across CP, FT, Bench, and System platforms to improve correlation and optimize system-level performance.
• Drive DOE planning, execution, and analysis for silicon characterization, yield optimization, and process tuning.
• Collaborate with system and hardware engineers to develop effective ASIC binning methodologies and system optimization strategies.
• Define and support ATE hardware requirements including probe cards, sockets, and load boards.
• Analyze wafer-level and package-level parametric and functional data to identify trends, root-cause failures, and drive corrective actions.
• Engage with foundry, OSAT, and external vendors to support bring-up, qualification, yield improvement, and manufacturing execution.
• Develop KPIs and dashboards to track power, performance, process variation, yield, and product quality metrics.

You Have

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 5–10 years of experience in Product Engineering, Test Engineering, Silicon Validation, or Post-Silicon Engineering in fabless or semiconductor environments.
• Strong understanding of semiconductor manufacturing flows including wafer sort (CP), final test (FT), qualification, and high-volume manufacturing.
• Experience with silicon bring-up, characterization, yield analysis, and product qualification for advanced-node ASICs or SoCs.
• Experience with ATE platforms such as Advantest 93K or Chroma.
• Experience developing or debugging ATE test programs and production screening methodologies.
• Strong statistical data analysis and debugging skills using tools such as JMP, Python, or similar analysis frameworks.
• Experience with DOE planning, silicon correlation, and yield optimization methodologies.
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally across Design, Systems, Firmware, Reliability, Manufacturing, Foundry, and OSAT teams.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to independently drive technical issues to closure.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with a high degree of ownership.

Nice to Have

• Experience with near-threshold operation or low-voltage optimization.
• Experience with high-performance computing, AI, networking, or bitcoin mining ASICs.
• Understanding of semiconductor device physics, SPICE fundamentals, and FinFET technologies.
• Experience with system-level characterization and correlation across ATE, Bench, and deployed systems.
• Experience with scripting or automation using Python, Perl, or TCL.
• Verbal fluency in Mandarin is a plus.