About Me

Now a Bay Area resident for 11 years, I arrived from North Carolina to get my Master's at Stanford. An internship in Apple's iPod team led to a career in developing high quality consumer electronics. I spent 5 years at Apple as a EE systems integrator for the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, and iPhone 5S before becoming an Engineering Manager on the first Apple Watch. Seeking to grow professionally beyond Apple, in mid-2014 I helped build a startup named Pearl Automation as employee #5 and founding team member. Pearl raised $50M, grew to 80 people, and shipped our first product RearVision before closing three years later. Most recently, I took the role of Head of Hardware Engineering at Noon Home, a startup in the smart lighting space.

I love the craft of building elegant products that make people smile and better their lives.

I've made my home in beautiful Santa Cruz, California with my wife Chrissy Meyer and our dogs Luna & Max. We just had our first baby in May 2018. My passions include cooking, travel, doggos, sports, podcasts, and politics.

Contact Details

hello@saketvora.com

Download Resume

Consulting

I'm currently working as a freelance consultant, eager to offer my expertise & experience to help create and/or improve your product.
Contact me at consulting@saketvora.com to learn more.

Hardware System Architecture

I offer expertise in hardware system architecture, specializing in low power, small form-factor, highly integrated, and design for high volume manufacturing. Chipset selection for SoCs, PMICs, memory, sensors, connectors, and a variety of RF technologies such as BT/BLE, WiFi, Cellular, GPS, etc. Extensive component level experience with lithium ion batteries, camera modules, & imaging pipelines.

Beyond just the EE schematic & board design, I can help with overall product architecture where the EE and ME teams interact. PCB MCOs & floorplanning, FPCBs, rigid flex, e-flex, thermal analysis, antenna & desense issue mitigation, ESD/EMI, and designing for reliability.

Hardware Product Development

Throughout my career, I've worked closely with program management and have directly defined & guided product development schedules, build planning, cross-functional team allocations, and development budgets. I can also help with mapping out hardware-firmware-software interdependencies & intercept points, and best practices to ensure a smooth transition from early prototypes to a shipping state.

I also have experience with Operations-facing tasks, such as vendor selection & management, BOM scrubs and cost analysis, factory bringup & support, and build logistics.

Work Experience

Noon Home, Inc.

Head of Hardware Engineering• Sept 2017 - May 2018

Joined the EE team, then later was asked to lead the hardware engineering organization of electrical, mechanical, firmware, and lab teams. Helped guide team through UL certification, refine product roadmap, optimize system architecture, and delineate program development schedules for Gen2 products. Worked with Operations team for vendor selection & cost down opportunities.

Pearl Automation, Inc.

System Architect & Founding Team Member• June 2014 - June 2017

Employee #5, System Architect, and Wearer of Many Hats. Helped define product architecture, silicon selection, and development process. HW Lead for Camera Frame, with specialty into stereoscopic imaging solution, power modeling, wireless video, and low power design. Helped lead data architecture design and analytics vendor selection. Led deep dive into mapping for autonomous vehicles, cellular connectivity business models, conducted industry research and NHTSA policy analyses, and contributed to social media efforts.

Apple, Inc. - Watch

Hardware Engineering Manager• Sept 2013 - June 2014

Led a team of 8 people to help design the first generation Apple Watch, part of a larger multi-faceted hardware team. Contributed to a variety of "Apple firsts" regarding Watch product architecture, integrated S1 chip, wireless charging, and creating a debug & development ecosystem for a connector-less product.

Apple, Inc. - iPhone & iPod

Hardware Systems Integrator• Aug 2009 - Aug 2013

Owned iPhone 5S logic board schematic & layout from EVT to ship. Helped tackle integration challenges around the first TouchID implementation, as well as numerous ship-block issues. Hardware Lead for iPod Nano (7th-gen), and worked on iPod Shuffle as my first project at Apple.

Education

Stanford University

M.S. in Electrical Engineering• 2007 - 2009

Coursework in Analog/RF Circuits, Entrepreneurial Finance, Technology Strategy.
BASES Social Entrepreneurship Competition committee.

North Carolina State University

B.S. in Electrical Engineering • 2003 - 2007

Park Scholarship recipient - NC State's most prestigious four year merit award.
Co-founder of Krispy Kreme Challenge.

Skills

  • System architecture, electrical design, and manufacturing for high quality, high volume consumer electronics.
  • Expertise in mobile devices: low power design, aggressively small form factors, li-on battery power and charging, highly integrated silicon, stringent reliability constraints.
  • Autonomous vehicle technology: image sensors, high performance compute, HD mapping, designing for ADAS and autonomous capabilities, automotive reliablity.
  • Wireless connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular, including chip-on-board and module approaches. Cellular data plans and models.
  • Cumulative 5 months of on-the-ground 
factory build experience across 14 trips to China.
  • Team building, organizational development, building strong a company culture.
  • Industry and market research, competitor analysis, trends and forecasting.

Get In Touch.

Feel free to get in touch.
Use the space below or send an email to hello@saketvora.com

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