Hardware Engineering Manager

Introduction

For hardware managers who want end-to-end ownership of a project and real execution empowerment.

This is a Head of Hardware role in the truest sense of the title.

We’re building a cryptography-first AI chip where security is not layered on—it is native to computation itself.

You will own the full hardware stack, from abstract architectural intent through firmware, prototyping, validation, and manufacturable designs. The mandate is not to optimize an existing chip, but to define how an entirely new class of cryptography-focused AI hardware gets built.

You’ll translate mathematical formulations and architectures into concrete execution plans, set firmware and hardware standards, and build the processes that let a small team move fast without breaking coherence. You’ll see failure modes before they happen and design the system and work with the team to avoid them.

If you’re at a point in your career where you want to manage engineering teams, communicate the architectural and technical depth, and empower and inspire operational excellence in one role, this is a rare chance to have all three.

What You’ll Do

·       Understand and translate high-level mathematics and architectural visions into concrete hardware and firmware plans.

·       Own the end-to-end hardware development lifecycle, from prototype to validation.

·       Visualize and define a process that keeps the team moving fast and aligned.

·       Write, review, and guide firmware development as needed.

·       Understand and own the standards the company requires of all firmware.

·       Review team output and push back on work that does not meet technical or quality standards.

·       Hold a bigger, overall picture of the various team members and their unique skills, and keep them inside the process, effectively moving towards the goal.

·       Identify where the team is “glitching” and proactively support and restore clarity.

·       Position team members to succeed based on their strengths.

·       Act as a thought partner to the CEO, challenging assumptions and sharpening ideas.

·       Preserve architectural vision while making it buildable and shippable.

·       Collaborate with software, manufacturing, and operations to ensure scalable designs.

What We’re Looking For

·       As a minimum, a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields. An MS degree is preferred.

·       5+ years overall engineering experience, including 2+ years of managing teams.

·       Strong firmware and low-level systems programming skills

·       Deep intuition for hardware/software co-design

·       Comfort reasoning from abstract mathematical models to real-world constraints

·       Understanding of high-level, abstract mathematics, for example, number theory for cryptography and prime field math

·       Solid grounding in math relevant to hardware and AI systems

·       Scrappy, highly motivated, and comfortable with ambiguity

·       Systems thinker who sees problems before they surface

·       Clear, excellent communicator

·       Open-source-friendly and intellectually curious

·       Bonus point for: start-up or high-growth environment experience

Compensation & Benefits

·       Salary: $210,000–$260,000

·       Flexible vacation

·       Benefits, health, dental, vision

·       Flexible parental leave

·       401k (match)

Who we are

Fabric Cryptography is building a new class of hardware to make cryptographic trust fast and practical at scale.

We design Verifiable Processing Units (VPUs)—programmable chips built specifically for modern cryptography. Our architecture is designed around the core math of privacy-preserving computation, enabling techniques like zero-knowledge proofs and secure computation to run efficiently in real systems.

We’re a small, passionate team of cryptographers and engineers. In the near term, our hardware powers zero-knowledge systems. Long term, it becomes a foundation for secure computation across several industries.

If you’re excited to design novel hardware and help define a new computing primitive alongside people who genuinely care about the work, we’d love to build it with you.