Electrical Engineer Consumer Electromechanical Products

Electrical Engineer — Consumer Electromechanical ProductsAbout SphinxSphinx is building a new way to feed cats: a smart refrigerated feeder with a patented system that keeps wet food fresh, warms it on schedule, and uses onboard AI facial recognition to adapt to each cat. Our goal is simple: healthier cats and happier humans.

In 30 days on Kickstarter we sold 1,600+ units (~$555K), built a waitlist of 45,000+, and partnered with Rayne Nutrition and Savage Cat Food. We're now heading into DVT/DFM with a contract manufacturer.

We're a small team taking on a category that hasn't meaningfully changed in decades. You'd be the electrical engineering lead on the product, working directly with the founders, our engineers, and our external mechanical, industrial design, and manufacturing partners.

What you'll do

• Own the electrical architecture of the Sphinx feeder end to end — schematic, layout, bring-up, debug, and compliance
• Work hand-in-hand with our CM through DVT, PVT, and mass production
• Debug real hardware on the bench: power, motor control, RF, thermal, EMCCollaborate with ME and ID on enclosure, harness routing, and electromechanical integration
• Drive EMC pre‑compliance and formal FCC/CE certification
• Sweat the details that determine whether 5,000 units work on day one and at 18 months

Required experience

(please do NOT apply without)Shipped at least one commercial consumer hardware product — not a prototype, research project, or a student competition. A product real people bought and used.PCB design from schematic through layout in Altium, KiCad, or equivalent. Multi‑layer boards with mixed‑signal, power, and RF domains.

Motor control — steppers, BLDC, or servo. Real driver selection, current tuning, acoustic and thermal tradeoffs.

• Contract manufacturer / NPI experience — you've sat in a factory, run DFM reviews, debugged yield issues, and managed an NPI build with a CM.Nice to have
• Refrigeration, compressor control, or thermal system experience
• EMC/FCC certification work (pre‑scan, lab bookings, corrective action)
• WiFi and BLE integration, including antenna selection and placement
• Firmware experience — comfortable reading C and working closely with a firmware engineer
• Experience with sealed or wet/humid environment electronics (conformal coating, connector selection, condensation mitigation)
• Do not apply if
• You're still in school or a recent graduate
• Your experience is primarily firmware on someone else's hardware
• You've worked only in simulation, research, or semiconductor‑specific roles without shipping a full product
• You're looking for remote or hybrid — this role is on‑site in Palo Alto
• You've never designed a PCB that went into a product someone bought
• You need a big‑company environment.
• We are a small close knit team.

LogisticsLocation: On‑site in Palo Alto, CA. No remote, no hybrid.

Compensation

Competitive salary and equity in an early‑stage company.

How to apply

Send a resume plus a short paragraph answering these three questions:

What commercial consumer hardware product have you shipped? Briefly describe your role and what you owned.

Which of the "Required experience" areas is your deepest strength, and which is your weakest?

Why Sphinx?

Applications without all three will not be reviewed.#J-18808-Ljbffr

Skills

• Acoustics, Antenna, Computer Firmware, Contract Manufacturing, Corrective Action, Debugging Skills, Electrical Engineering, Electricity, Electromechanical Engineering, Electromechanics, Electronics, FCC (Federal Communications Commission), Industrial Design, Manufacturing, Mechanical Design, Motor Control Systems, Printed Circuit Board Design, Product/Service Launch, Prototyping, Radio Frequency, Schematics, Semiconductors, Servomechanism, Simulation, Thermal Management, Wi-Fi

About the Company

sphinx