Assembly and Test Technician

LOCATION:

CALMSDEN, CIRENCESTER, UK. LIMITED FIELD TRAVEL AS REQUIRED | 5 DAYS ONSITE

ARD was founded on a paradox. The Arctic is both the next great economic frontier and one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Rich in resources and strategically vital, yet bone-chillingly cold, dark for months, and fundamentally inhospitable to humans. This paradox - an explosion of activity in a place that resists human presence - is why we exist.

Our solution is autonomy.

We build systems that operate reliably and intelligently in the Arctic, so that humans don't always have to.

Founded by record-holding pioneers with decades of polar experience, we take calculated risks on hard problems that matter. If you want to build and deploy ground-up technology with real-world impact, at an inflection point in history that won’t reappear, we’d like to talk.

ARD is growing and we’re looking for an Assembly and Test Technician to help us build and test our ruggedized hardware - from field-ready energy and battery systems to the autonomous platforms we deploy in the Arctic. Right now, our biggest constraint isn’t design. It’s the time it takes to assemble and test what we’ve designed.

Reporting to our Senior Test Engineer
, you’ll join our engineering team, working alongside our mechanical and electrical engineers and across our main hardware work streams. You’ll take hands-on ownership of assembly and testing, helping with the practical implementation and testing of engineering designs. Within your first 3 months, you’ll have helped to take assembly and test off the critical path on our key projects, and helped put in place the documentation and test processes that let us build and test consistently, unit after unit.

• Assemble mechanical and electrical sub-assemblies, harnesses, PCBAs, and complete units to drawings and build instructions, so they’re ready for test on schedule.

• Run test phases on assemblies and finished units and record the results accurately, so issues are found and fixed before hardware reaches the field.

• Help set up repeatable test processes, from test plans and rigs to how results are captured, working closely with our Senior Test Engineer.

• Write and maintain build instructions, test procedures and records, raising the standard of our engineering documentation as we scale.

• Spot and report problems found during build and test, giving engineers the detail they need to debug and improve the next design revision.

You’re a practical, hands‑on technician who takes pride in building things properly and getting the details right. You’re methodical, you like a clear process, and you’d rather write something down than rely on memory. You might come from a technician role in engineering, manufacturing or a test lab, an engineering apprenticeship, the armed forces, or a mechanical or electrical engineering degree with plenty of hands‑on build experience.

* Please note:

this role is not eligible for visa sponsorship *

• An engineering qualification (such as an HNC/HND, apprenticeship or degree in mechanical or electrical engineering), or equivalent hands‑on experience.

• Hands‑on experience assembling mechanical or electrical hardware in a workshop, lab or production setting.

• Experience with basic soldering equipment

• Ability to work from engineering drawings, schematics and written build instructions.

• Experience running tests on hardware and recording the results accurately.

• Confident using common workshop tools and electrical test equipment, such as multimeters and bench power supplies.

• Comfortable owning your own tasks with guidance from the engineering team, and raising problems early when a build or test doesn’t go to plan.

• Experi…