Electricals Materials Handler (Inventory)

About Etched

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary

The Electricals Materials Handler owns the lifecycle of every electrical component that goes onto an Etched module: from receiving, through storage, inspection and kitting, to consumption on our in-house SMT line and at our contract manufacturers (CMs). You'll sit on the Inventory team and be the source of truth for board electricals: what we have, where it is, what condition it is in, and what is about to run out.

This hire will run clean consignment with CMs.Success looks like: Etched-owned material at CM sites is counted, reconciled and traceable, so builds don't stall on a missing reel and variances get closed.Board materials are accounted fully: moisture-sensitive parts are handled correctly, kits match the released BOM with no shortages or substitutions, and scrap and write-offs trend toward zero. The data you produce lets Procurement buy against real on-hand, consumed and in-transit numbers instead of estimates.

Key Responsibilities

- Storage and handling: Receive, label, measure quantity, inspect and put away board electricals, connectors and boards, with full traceability. Run ESD-safe handling and moisture-sensitivity (MSD) control: dry cabinets, bake-out, exposure-time tracking.

- Consignment with CMs: Own the record of Etched-owned material held at contract manufacturers: shipments out, consumption, returns and scrap. Run cycle counts and periodic reconciliations against CM reports; investigate and close every variance.

- Incoming quality control: Inspect incoming lots: part marking, quantity, packaging, reel and tray condition, date codes. Quarantine and disposition non-conforming material; raise supplier issues through Procurement. Keep first-article and inspection records for every new part number and supplier.

- Kitting: Pull and kit components to the released BOM and revision for prototype builds, bring-up boards, in-house SMT runs and CM production. Flag shortages, substitutions and revision mismatches before the kit ships, not after the line stops. Pack and document kits for line-side staging and CM handoff, including MSD status and special-handling notes.

- Reporting to Procurement: Publish a weekly view of on-hand, allocated, in-transit and at-CM quantities by part number. Flag parts approaching reorder point, excess or obsolete stock, and lots nearing MSD or shelf-life limits. Feed actual consumption and scrap data back so forecasts and PO quantities match reality.

- Processes: Write the SOPs for receiving, consignment transfers, RMA and return-to-stock so the process does not depend on who is on shift. Contribute to the ESD, 5S and safety programs shared with the SMT line.

- Automation: Help our agentic manufacturing team pull inventory and consumption data into automated reporting and reorder signals.

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

- 2+ years handling electronic components in a manufacturing, EMS/CM, or hardware-startup environment.

- Working knowledge of ESD control (ANSI/ESD S20.20) and moisture-sensitivity handling (IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033).

- Able to read a BOM, a PCB assembly drawing and a component datasheet, and spot when a delivered part does not match them.

- Hands-on experience with an ERP or inventory system (NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, or similar) for receiving, transfers and cycle counts.

- Comfortable in spreadsheets: lookups, pivots

- Experience working with contract manufacturers on consigned or customer-furnished material.

- Organized under pressure: prototype builds change daily and the kit still has to be right.

- Clear written communication; organization of your thoughts and process not just for yourself but for others to work with.

- Passionate about automating parts of the job with agentic AI models, and willing to learn about this on the job.

- Ownership mentality: accountable to the outcome, and do whatever it takes to get to the goal.

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

- IPC-A-610 or IPC-7711/7721 certification, or SMT line experience.

- Experience setting up consignment or vendor-managed inventory programs from scratch.

- Familiarity with counterfeit-avoidance practices (AS6081 / AS5553) and authorized-distributor sourcing.

- Exposure to datacenter hardware: accelerator cards, server base boards, high-power or high-speed interconnect components.

- Forklift or pallet-jack certification.

Benefits

- Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage

- $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits

- Housing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office

- Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)

- Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more

- Daily lunch and dinner in our office

- Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification.

Compensation range

- $60,000 - 90,000, with equity

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and the SMT line and material storage are located in nearby Milpitas; this role splits time between the two sites. The role involves lifting up to 50 lb, standing for extended periods and working in an ESD-controlled area, with occasional travel to CM sites. We do not have boundaries between teams, and we expect everyone to work across disciplines as needed.

As set forth in Etched's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.