Field Test Engineer

Description

Who we are

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.

Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that.

Atoms builds Physical AI— real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.

This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.

We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.

Responsibilities

• Plan and run scenario cases at proving grounds: translate a case specification into a test procedure, set up instrumented targets and VUT’s, define approach conditions and tolerance bands, and execute enough valid runs to support a result.
• Run scenario cases on public roads with safety drivers, route and condition selection to actually encounter the target scenario, in-vehicle protocol, driver briefing, abort criteria, and disciplined recording of what occurred. Keep staged and opportunistic encounters clearly distinct, because they are not the same evidence.
• Own the risk assessment for the testing itself: site layout, personnel positions, exclusion zones, emergency stop provisions, weather and surface limits, and the conditions under which a test does not run. You hold the call to stop, and we expect you to use it.
• Own instrumentation and ground truth - ego positioning, target position and velocity, timing synchronisation, video and data acquisition. A run that cannot be reconstructed from its data did not produce evidence.
• Own tolerance bands, the number of valid runs a result requires, and the rejection of runs that fall outside them, with the reason recorded. Nobody downstream can audit this if you do not.
• Write test reports a safety case engineer can cite directly: what was run, under what conditions, against what criteria, with what outcome, and every deviation from the procedure. Write for someone who was not there and will be asked to defend the conclusion.
• Own proving ground scheduling, test equipment and its calibration, and third-party test service relationships, including the practical knowledge of what each venue can and cannot stage.
• Report what is not testable as specified, what needed adaptation to run at all, and what no available venue can stage. A case definition nobody can execute is a defect in the definition, and you find it first.
• Use AI tooling to remove the drudgery: first-draft procedures generated from case specifications, automated validity checking of runs against tolerance bands so invalid runs are caught at the track rather than in analysis a week later, and report drafting from acquisition data.

Requirements

• 5+ years hands-on vehicle test engineering, ADAS or AV testing, proving ground operations, or OEM and Tier 1 vehicle test. Time actually running tests, not planning them for other people.
• Hands-on with the equipment: instrumented targets including soft cars and pedestrian and cyclist targets, driving robots, RTK or GNSS ground truth, timing synchronisation and data acquisition. Tell us what you have run, on what, and what went wrong with it.
• Experience executing published test procedures, Euro NCAP or NHTSA crash-avoidance procedures or equivalent, and the judgment to see where a procedure written for a human-driven vehicle needs adaptation.
• Rigour about validity. You reject runs that fall outside tolerance and record why, without being asked and without being talked out of it. This is the trait that most predicts success here.
• Safety-of-test judgment. You have stopped a test, or refused to start one, and can explain the call. Staging hazards deliberately is the job; doing it without hurting anyone is the skill.
• Data ability in Python or similar, comfortable reducing acquisition data and producing a defensible result rather than handing over raw logs.
• Comfort using AI tooling to automate procedure drafting, run validity checks and report generation, with a clear-eyed view of the limit: a run either happened as specified or it did not, and no tool can decide a marginal run counts.
• Clear written communication. Your reports become cited evidence in arguments other people sign, and a report that cannot be followed by someone who was not present is not usable.
• Willingness to travel to proving grounds and test routes regularly, and to work the hours that test windows and weather actually allow.

Benefits

• At Atoms, you’ll work on one of the defining challenges of our time—bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what’s known and building what doesn’t yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it’s grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team—so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow.
• What else you need to know
• This role is based in our San Francisco office. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.
• The base salary range for this role is $170,000 - $215,000 per year.
• Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.
• Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards.
• Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, and Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account / Health Savings Account Options
• 401(k)
• Equity
• Sick Time, Unlimited Flexible Time Off, and Paid Holidays
• Paid Parental Leave
• Pre-Tax Commuter Benefit Plan
• Team lunch in our SoMa office every Tuesday and Thursday
• Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.
• Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?
• #LI-Onsite