Senior Test Engineer

Description

The company is hiring a hands-on Senior Test Engineer to create its hardware test infrastructure from scratch.

You will build the tools, fixtures, automation and test systems that show quickly whether hardware works, where it breaks and whether it is ready to ship. Your work covers single components and subsystems up to complete drones and production units.

No test lab or procedures exist yet. You will choose what to build first and build it, often while the hardware is still changing.

You will partner with Hardware, Software, Manufacturing and Flight Test to turn product requirements and real-world failure modes into practical, repeatable tests. When a flight test finds something unexpected or a build needs release approval, you will get the answer directly rather than through a ticket queue.

The role suits someone who enjoys building, breaking and analyzing things, and who wants test work to keep up with a quick-moving team.

Responsibilities

• Create test fixtures, automated test equipment, data acquisition, and hardware-in-the-loop setups for drones and their subsystems.
• Write automated test software and scripts that run tests, gather data, analyze results, and flag failures and performance problems quickly.
• Cover electronics, sensors, cameras, batteries, motors, communications, flight systems and complete drones in testing.
• Design environmental, stress, endurance, reliability and lifecycle tests modeled on real field use.
• Take ownership of test methods from early prototypes through NPI and production, packaging engineering tests into repeatable systems the whole company can use.
• Work with Engineering and Manufacturing to find root causes, recommend design changes, and confirm that test results drive real product improvements.

Requirements

• Required: 7+ years of hands-on work in hardware test, systems test, validation, reliability, or test engineering on complex hardware.
• Required: A solid record building test fixtures, automated test equipment, data acquisition systems, instrumentation, and hardware and software test setups.
• Required: Strong Python or similar language skills for automation, plus work with test equipment, APIs, serial interfaces, CAN, Ethernet, or other hardware communication protocols.
• Required: A broad grasp of electronics, embedded systems, sensors, batteries, motors, communications, and electromechanical systems, and skill at troubleshooting across these.
• Required: Experience writing test plans, setting pass/fail criteria, analyzing large test data sets, and turning failures into actionable engineering feedback.
• Required: Comfort working at the bench, building your own setups, solving unfamiliar problems, and adapting quickly as products and requirements change.
• Preferred: Prior work on drones, robotics, autonomous systems, aerospace hardware, or other complex electromechanical products.
• Preferred: Hands-on use of HIL, SIL, flight simulation, or automated system-level testing.
• Preferred: Environmental and reliability testing such as thermal cycling, vibration, shock, ingress, drop, endurance, and accelerated life testing.
• Preferred: Testing of batteries, power systems, motors, ESCs, cameras, sensors, radios, GPS/GNSS, and other common drone subsystems.
• Preferred: Building production test systems and moving engineering test methods into reliable, repeatable manufacturing tests.
• Preferred: Work at a startup or fast-moving hardware company where you built test infrastructure rather than running an existing process.