IT Engineer

About Etched

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Job Summary

At Etched, every role is critical, but as an IT Engineer, you’ll be the key to ensuring everyone can perform at their highest level. You’ll be the trusted resource who keeps our high-performance engineering and operations environment running seamlessly, so teams can innovate without barriers. In this role, you’ll drive company-wide productivity, empower engineers with tools and infrastructure to move at maximum velocity, and champion a culture of operational excellence across all systems. From enabling cutting-edge chip development workflows to streamlining day-to-day IT operations, you’ll ensure nothing slows down our mission to build transformational AI innovation.

Key responsibilities:

End-to-End IT Support:

• Provide hands-on IT delivery and support for the entire firm, including ASIC design teams, software and platform engineering, business operations, and scale-out computing teams.

• Lead onboarding and offboarding processes to ensure seamless access aligned with engineering and leadership workflows.

• Maintain robust documentation of IT assets, systems, access protocols, and ticket workflows.

Device & Endpoint Management:

• Manage on-site and remote laptops, desktops, and networking equipment with attention to ease of use, security, and remote manageability.

• Deploy and administer MDM and MAM solutions for Mac and Windows devices.

• Implement and maintain antivirus, antimalware, Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR), and Extended Detection & Response (XDR).

• Drive hardware procurement, staging, imaging, and maintenance for development and operations teams.

Identity & Access Management:

• Implement and administer Single Sign-On (SSO) across core services, ensuring secure and frictionless user authentication. Okta experience a bonus

• Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning workflows using Rippling, Okta, Google Workspace, and FreeIPA to streamline access management and reduce errors.

• Enforce role-based access controls and audit trails to align with compliance and security standards.

Network & Security:

• Design, deploy, and maintain wired and wireless networks, including Wi-Fi access points (WAPs) and controller administration.

• Configure and manage VPN infrastructure to provide secure remote access for distributed teams.

• Administer firewalls, ensuring proper segmentation, policy enforcement, and protection of sensitive environments.

Automation & Operational Excellence:

• Develop automation scripts (Python, Bash, PowerShell) to streamline provisioning, patching, monitoring, and user lifecycle management.

• Integrate monitoring and alerting systems to reduce manual workload and increase reliability.

• Champion a culture of operational excellence, ensuring IT systems meet compliance standards (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001).

Collaboration & Vendor Management:

• Coordinate with external vendors and partners to evaluate new products, support existing offerings, and to resolve IT issues.

• Partner closely with engineering, security, and operations teams to align IT strategy with business and technical goals.

Representative projects:

• Managing a mixed-OS engineering environment (Linux for EDA tools, Windows/macOS for general use) — including imaging, patching, and security hardening.

• Designing and maintaining secure network infrastructure (VPNs, VLANs, firewalls, access control) to protect sensitive chip design IP.

• Implementing and managing endpoint/device lifecycle systems (procurement, setup, MDM, retirement) for engineering and operations teams.

• Deploying and integrating compute resources (on-prem servers and cloud environments) to support large-scale simulations and hardware workflows.

• Building scalable onboarding/offboarding and IT automation workflows to ensure fast, secure ramp-up for new engineers and smooth transitions.

• Strong understanding of networking fundamentals: VPNs, VLANs, firewalls.

• Skilled in endpoint management, system imaging, and hardware lifecycle management.

• Proficient with ticketing systems and adept at prioritizing tasks in busy environments.

• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively with engineering teams in fast-paced, innovative settings.

You may be a good fit if you have:

• 3+ years in an IT support or engineering role with experience across macOS, Windows and Linux

• Excellent problem-solving skills, with a proactive and ownership-driven mindset.

• Experience working in a fast-paced startup environment.

• Proven experience with endpoint management tools (e.g., Jump,Cloud, Jamf, Intune, Kandji).

• Hands-on expertise in enterprise VPNs, wireless networking, and zero-trust access models.

• Strong background in EDR/XDR platforms (e.g., ThreadDown, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne).

• Scripting and automation proficiency (Python, Bash, PowerShell).

• Knowledge of security best practices, incident response, and identity/access management (IAM).

• Strong networking expertise, including configuring and troubleshooting TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, and firewalls.

• Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) or a developer-oriented compute infrastructure is a plus.

Benefits

• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with generous premium coverage

• Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office

• Daily lunch and dinner in our office

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

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.