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 an ASIC Validation Engineer to help bridge the gap between custom mining silicon design and real-world operation. In this highly hands-on, lab-focused role, you'll work closely with ASIC designers and system engineers to debug issues, build test infrastructure, and generate the data needed to enable rapid design iteration and system-level development.

You Will:

• Bring up new silicon on bench platforms, evaluation boards, and system hardware
• Debug issues across ASIC, board, firmware, and system interactions
• Develop bench tests, scripts, and tools to exercise silicon features and collect data
• Build and maintain test setups (lab automation, instrumentation, fixtures, scripts)
• Partner with ASIC designers to validate functionality and root-cause failures
• Work with system engineers to ensure silicon performs correctly in target system environments, including mining systems
• Generate and analyze data to support design decisions, characterization, and bring-up
• Create lightweight, reusable test workflows and documentation for the broader team
• Support early manufacturing efforts with practical validation and debug, as needed
• Travel up to 20% to the labs in Oakland, CA or Toronto, Canada

You Have:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field
• 4+ years of experience in silicon validation, hardware test, or related roles
• Strong hands-on experience in a lab environment (bench bring-up, debugging, instrumentation)
• Solid understanding of digital systems and basic analog concepts
• Experience writing scripts or tools (Python preferred) for test and data analysis
• Comfortable debugging issues that span multiple layers (ASIC ↔ board ↔ system)
• Clear communication skills and ability to work closely with cross-functional teams

Preferred:

• Experience with ASIC or FPGA bring-up and validation
• Familiarity with common interfaces (SPI, I2C, JTAG, UART, etc.)
• Experience using lab equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, etc.)
• Exposure to high-performance, power-dense systems (e.g., mining ASICs, accelerators, or similar)
• Experience building test automation or internal tooling
• Familiarity with data analysis and visualization

Nice to Have

• Experience working with early silicon / first bring-up environments
• Exposure to manufacturing test or ATE
• Experience working on systems with tight power, thermal, and performance constraints

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 an ASIC Validation Engineer to help bridge the gap between custom mining silicon design and real-world operation. In this highly hands-on, lab-focused role, you'll work closely with ASIC designers and system engineers to debug issues, build test infrastructure, and generate the data needed to enable rapid design iteration and system-level development.

You Will:

• Bring up new silicon on bench platforms, evaluation boards, and system hardware
• Debug issues across ASIC, board, firmware, and system interactions
• Develop bench tests, scripts, and tools to exercise silicon features and collect data
• Build and maintain test setups (lab automation, instrumentation, fixtures, scripts)
• Partner with ASIC designers to validate functionality and root-cause failures
• Work with system engineers to ensure silicon performs correctly in target system environments, including mining systems
• Generate and analyze data to support design decisions, characterization, and bring-up
• Create lightweight, reusable test workflows and documentation for the broader team
• Support early manufacturing efforts with practical validation and debug, as needed
• Travel up to 20% to the labs in Oakland, CA or Toronto, Canada

You Have:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field
• 4+ years of experience in silicon validation, hardware test, or related roles
• Strong hands-on experience in a lab environment (bench bring-up, debugging, instrumentation)
• Solid understanding of digital systems and basic analog concepts
• Experience writing scripts or tools (Python preferred) for test and data analysis
• Comfortable debugging issues that span multiple layers (ASIC ↔ board ↔ system)
• Clear communication skills and ability to work closely with cross-functional teams

Preferred:

• Experience with ASIC or FPGA bring-up and validation
• Familiarity with common interfaces (SPI, I2C, JTAG, UART, etc.)
• Experience using lab equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, etc.)
• Exposure to high-performance, power-dense systems (e.g., mining ASICs, accelerators, or similar)
• Experience building test automation or internal tooling
• Familiarity with data analysis and visualization

Nice to Have

• Experience working with early silicon / first bring-up environments
• Exposure to manufacturing test or ATE
• Experience working on systems with tight power, thermal, and performance constraints

Why This Role Matters

This role enables the team to move fast. By building the right test infrastructure and quickly turning hardware behavior into actionable data, you'll help both ASIC and system teams iterate faster and make better decisions across silicon and mining system development.

We're working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is an equal opportunity employer evaluating all employees and job applicants without regard to identity or any legally protected class. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and "fair chance" ordinances.

We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we're doing to build a workplace that is fair and square? Check out our I+D page.

While there is no specific deadline to apply for this role, U.S. roles are typically open for an average of 55 days before being filled by a successful candidate. Please refer to the date listed at the top of this job page for when this role was first posted.

Block is one company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. The blocks that form our foundational teams — People, Finance, Counsel, Hardware, Information Security, Platform Infrastructure Engineering, and more — provide support and guidance at the corporate level. They work across business groups and around the globe, spanning time zones and disciplines to develop inclusive People policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, safeguard systems, nurture new initiatives, and more. Every challenge creates possibilities, and we need different perspectives to see them all. Bring yours to Block.

The Role

As a Reliability Program Manager (REL PM) within Block Hardware, you will own the end-to-end strategy, planning, and execution of hardware reliability validation across our consumer electronics portfolio. You will serve as the single point of accountability for reliability test planning, execution, results synthesis, and cross-program learning, partnering closely with Hardware Engineering, Product Design, Quality, Operations, and Manufacturing.

This role is highly technical and program-oriented, requiring a strong understanding of consumer electronics reliability methodologies and how lab-based testing translates to real-world customer use cases. You will bring structure, consistency, and deep focus to reliability work that today is distributed across multiple programs, enabling earlier risk identification, clearer decision-making, and higher overall product quality.

The Reliability Program Manager operates as an independent, unbiased partner to individual product teams, ensuring that reliability risks are surfaced, prioritized, and resolved without being overshadowed by short-term schedule pressure.

You Will

• Own the hardware reliability (REL) strategy across Block Hardware products, from early development through production
• Define, maintain, and continuously improve standardized REL test plans by product category and development phase
• Plan and manage REL schedules across multiple concurrent hardware programs
• Serve as the primary point of contact for:
  • Third-party reliability laboratories
  • Contract manufacturer (CM) reliability partners
• Drive execution of reliability testing at labs and CMs, ensuring clear scope, timelines, and deliverables
• Track, analyze, and synthesize REL results, highlighting trends, risks, and systemic issues
• Partner with Hardware Engineering and Product Design to:
  • Drive failure analysis (FA)
  • Define mitigation and validation plans
  • Ensure reliability issues are appropriately prioritized and closed
• Identify common failure modes and mitigation strategies across programs and ensure learnings are reused
• Clearly communicate reliability status, risks, and tradeoffs to engineering leadership and program stakeholders
• Establish operating mechanisms and documentation that improve REL consistency, efficiency, and transparency
• Act as a strong advocate for product quality and long-term reliability throughout the development lifecycle

You Have

• BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical field; MS preferred
• 8+ years of industry experience in consumer electronics, hardware development, or manufacturing environments
• 5+ years of experience directly owning or managing hardware reliability programs, validation, or qualification
• Strong hands-on knowledge of reliability testing methodologies (e.g., HALT, HASS, EVT/DVT/PVT REL testing, environmental, mechanical, and lifecycle testing)
• Experience working with third-party REL labs and contract manufacturers
• Ability to translate test results into meaningful product and customer impact
• Strong program management skills with demonstrated ability to manage complex, cross-functional efforts
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level synthesis
• Comfort operating with high autonomy and accountability across multiple programs
• Ability to travel internationally for builds, lab engagements, and manufacturing support as needed

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting products through mass production and field returns analysis
• Familiarity with compliance, regulatory, or quality management systems
• Background working in highly scaled consumer hardware organizations
• Prior experience in an independent or centralized reliability function

We're working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is an equal opportunity employer evaluating all employees and job applicants without regard to identity or any legally protected class. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.

We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we're doing to build a workplace that is fair and square? Check out our I+D page.

While there is no specific deadline to apply for this role, U.S. roles are typically open for an average of 55 days before being filled by a successful candidate. Please refer to the date listed at the top of this job page for when this role was first posted.