Need a part time freelance PCB Designer...

[IDEngineer]

I've personally worked with our regular PCB Designer for ~30 years. Sadly, he's contracted cancer and it's just not feasible for him to work on our projects while going through radiation and chemotherapy. He's a dear personal friend and we want him focused on recovery.

That said, we need ongoing PCB Design too. So we're in the situation of needing a freelance PCB Designer who can do the occasional board for us while understanding we will not generate enough work to be your full time employer. This might be a good gig for a senior level EE student who wants a bit of income on the side, or a full time PCB Designer who wants the occasional side job. "Indoor work with no heavy lifting." You'll need to be fully outfitted with your own professional grade PCB Design software, we do not own it and have no interest in paying for it. That's why we're hiring you! 

We do perhaps 4-6 new PCB's a year. They're all small - the largest so far is 6x2 inches - and generally just 2-4 layers. Typical components are QFN-28's, SOIC's, 0402 and larger discretes, DPAK's, SOT23's, various connectors, etc. Nothing too exotic. No crazy tight trace spacings. Most of our stuff is pretty laid back and low stress. We sometimes have low noise/high sensitivity board areas but we will define those and work with you to make them reasonable to implement. On MCU's we often simply describe the type of pin a signal requires and give you the flexibility to assign them to optimize the layout ("use any available A/D input pin", "your choice of Schmitt Trigger digital input", etc.). In other words we aren't impossible to work with, we respect your talents, and don't always demand "our way or the highway".

We typically pay an hourly rate but we can discuss per-job payment too. We pay VERY fast. Our motto is "We won't be your largest client but we'll try hard to be your favorite". We will go months without bugging you, but when we need a board we need it promptly (defined as "a couple of weeks"). The simplicity of our designs helps this happen.

Our workflow is generally as follows:

1) We provide a rough schematic
2) You do the schematic capture
3) We approve the formal schematic and provide mechanical requirements
4) You do the basic layout
5) We do a detailed review of the artwork, generally within 24 hours
6) You correct anything we found
7) Repeat 5 and 6 until the board is ready
You provide complete docs package for prototype and production, plus a zipped copy of the entire project for our archiving (sufficient to hand to another PCB Designer with the same software)
9) You bill and we pay via check, PayPal, anything reasonable.

We will have a new PCB requirement in the next few weeks, so we're not in a huge rush but we do want to establish a new working relationship soon. We will provide examples of some of our present PCB's so you can get a feel for what we do. We don't care where you are located as long as you have reliable Internet access and speak fluent English (no offense, it's just a bandwidth thing).

Please don't reply to this thread... send me a PM here and I'll get back to you promptly.

Thanks for reading and hope to hear back soon!

[IDEngineer]

Thank you to everyone that has responded! We have compiled a list of everyone's contact data and will be reaching out when we're ready for our next new board, probably in a few weeks.

Sadly, our long time PCB Designer and very close personal friend succumbed to cancer in December. He had lost so much weight that by the time they realized what was going on, his body could not withstand chemotherapy and/or radiation. He asked to be taken home to Hawaii where he was given hospice care. I managed to do a whirlwind trip to see him - I missed his last conscious period by one day - and spent several hours sitting with him and his dear wife. He passed within an hour of my departure. There are rumors that comatose patients are sometimes aware of what is happening around them... I have no idea if that happened in this case, but if true hopefully it gave him some peace.

Not to get too mushy here, but: Hug your family and friends. You never know what tomorrow will bring. We're not here for a long time, just a good time. Be sure to share that time with those you love.

[trevwhite]

Sorry for your loss.