Director of Testing Team

Are you a technical leader who lives for perfecting how things are measured and proven? Do you believe that robust testing and smart data are the backbone of innovation? Join Rayleigh Solar Tech as the Director of Testing, where you'll lead the team responsible for ensuring our perovskite solar modules meet and exceed their performance and reliability targets.

At Rayleigh, we're building the lowest-cost source of clean electrons on the planet. Backed by world-class investors and a powerhouse technical team, we push the limits of deep tech to make solar radically more accessible. Our culture thrives on curiosity, urgency, and the pursuit of excellence - and we're looking for someone who shares that fire.

If you're an experienced test engineering leader with a passion for data, an instinct for automation, and an unrelenting commitment to quality, you might be exactly who we need to make sure our technology doesn't just work on paper - it excels in the field.

Responsibilities

What You'll DoIn this role, you'll build and manage our testing and data infrastructure from end to end. From procuring and commissioning state-of-the-art equipment for environmental and performance testing to developing automated data pipelines that turn hours of test data into actionable insights, you'll ensure no flaw goes undetected and no improvement opportunity is missed. You'll design rigorous test protocols (leveraging industry standards like IEC 61215 and ISOS) to validate our technology under accelerated conditions, and use advanced analytics - even AI - to predict long-term field performance from early data.

By partnering with both the "Rocket" R&D teams and the Scale-Up teams, you'll create a feedback loop that drives continuous improvement in efficiency and durability. Ultimately, your efforts will prove our technology's readiness for the real world and inform the breakthroughs that make it even better.

Build a World-Class Test Lab:
Design and stand up advanced testing facilities for our solar cells and modules. You'll specify and commission equipment like solar simulators, climate chambers, mechanical stress rigs, and specialized electronics for IV measurement, ensuring we can simulate extreme real-world conditions (temperature, humidity, UV, voltage bias, etc.). Your lab will be capable of running accelerated aging tests that compress years of outdoor exposure into weeks or months

Develop Rigorous Protocols:
Establish comprehensive test protocols for both performance and reliability. This spans everything from standard IV efficiency testing to long-term stability trials (damp heat, thermal cycling, humidity-freeze, light soak, etc.), following and exceeding industry standards (e.g., IEC 61215). You won't just run the tests off a checklist - you'll define what passing means for a brand-new tech.

Automation & Data Pipelines:
Implement systems to automate tests and data collection. You'll integrate sensors and software so that tests can run 24/7 with minimal human intervention, and results flow into databases in real time. Using tools like Python or LabVIEW (and perhaps custom electronics), you will create dashboards and analysis scripts that crunch gigabytes of data - extracting degradation rates, failure distributions, and performance trends at the click of a button.

Analyze & Inform:
Lead the deep analysis of test results to derive actionable insights. When a device fails, your team performs failure analysis to figure out why (with techniques like IV curve analysis, imaging, or materials forensics). You'll correlate test data with design/process factors to pinpoint root causes of any reliability issues. Crucially, you'll communicate these findings to other teams, turning data into concrete recommendations for materials or process improvements.

Collaborate Across Teams:
Act as the bridge between testing and the rest of the company. You'll work closely with the Performance and Stability group ("Rocket" team) to incorporate the latest degradation models and to suggest new experiments. Simultaneously, you'll interface with the Scale-Up engineering teams to ensure our pilot production has built-in test points and that our manufacturing output is continuously validated. In essence, you ensure a tight feedback loop: what we learn in testing immediately informs what we build next.

Lead and Mentor:
Build and manage a team of test engineers and technicians. You'll hire talent that shares a meticulous streak, and you'll mentor them in both the art and science of testing. By instituting best practices in calibration, documentation, and experiment design, you'll foster a culture where data integrity is sacred and every test is an opportunity to learn. Over time, you'll also help team members grow into broader roles (data analysis, reliability engineering, etc.),

multiplying the team's impact.

Qualifications

What You Bring

Education & Experience:

B.Sc. or M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a…