Circuit and PCB Reviewer

Experienced board designers to review complete circuit and PCB design tasks and say, with evidence, what is wrong and how to fix it.

AfterQuery builds the expert evaluation data that frontier AI labs use to measure and improve their models. We're hiring PCB and hardware design engineers as contractors to review the circuit and board design tasks those evaluations run on.

What you'll actually do

• Check that the documents agree: task description, schematic, PCB, parts list, datasheets and mechanical drawings all describe the same board
• Check that the circuit works: support parts, values and ratings per the datasheet, power-up behaviour, protection
• Check that the board can be built: placement and routing, manufacturability, assembly, mechanical fit, test and programming access
• Check the reference solution, score it against a rubric where needed, and rate how realistic the design is
• Write up each issue with the part or net, the consequence, the fix and how serious it is

Who this is for

• 3+ years designing boards you personally took through placement, routing, fabrication, assembly and bring-up
• Hands-on with mixed-signal boards (MCUs, USB, regulators, sensors, op-amps, common interfaces), including some 4-layer or larger boards
• Fluent in at least one PCB tool (Altium, OrCAD/Allegro, PADS, Xpedition, Eagle/Fusion or KiCad) and comfortable working in KiCad
• Reads datasheets closely and cites them for anything that has to be fixed
• Can tell "won't work or can't be built" apart from "best practice or preference"

Simulation-only or schematic-only backgrounds aren't a fit for this role.

Contract and pay

• $60 to $80/hr depending on experience, paid weekly via Stripe.
• Fully remote, fully async. Reviews happen in the browser.
• Minimum 10 hours per week, no maximum.
• No screen recording, no keystroke monitoring, no idle timers.
• Independent contractor.

How our hiring process works

• Apply at /apply/circuit-pcb-reviewer. About five minutes. Resume plus a few structured questions.
• Qualification exercise. About 20 minutes reviewing one board in our review tool, then five focused questions.
• Approval and calibration. Our engineers review your exercise, then you complete one calibration task.
• Onboarding. Sign the contractor agreement, connect Stripe, and work is assigned to you automatically.

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is an expert data lab. We build the evaluation and training data that frontier AI labs use to measure what their models can and can't do in real professional work. Our contributors are practicing professionals, not annotators, and the work is credited, reviewed, and paid at professional rates.

Required qualifications

• 3+ years designing boards you personally took through placement, routing, fabrication, assembly and bring-up
• Hands-on with mixed-signal boards (MCUs, USB, regulators, sensors, op-amps), including some 4-layer or larger boards
• Fluent in at least one PCB tool and comfortable working in KiCad
• Reads schematics, parts lists, datasheets and mechanical drawings, and cites the datasheet for any must-fix
• Clear written English and at least 10 hours per week

Why apply

• $60 to $80/hr depending on experience, paid weekly via Stripe
• 100% remote and fully async, reviews happen in the browser
• Work is assigned automatically once you qualify
• Hours you set each week, minimum 10