Hardware Test Engineer

As our Hardware Test Engineer, you will execute the reliability, validation, and verification testing that proves the RELIC across its mechanical, electrical, and compute systems. You will translate the design groups' failure-mode findings into test plans, build the fixtures and instrumentation the tests run on, and carry the results back to the engineers who own the design. Travel: up to 20%.

This is a full-time, in-office role, five days a week in Mountain View.

• Translate DFMEA findings and verification requirements from the design groups, NPI, and

  the production floor into test plans, sample sizes, stress levels, and acceptance criteria

• Design and build the test fixtures, harnesses, instrumentation, and data acquisition the

  mechanical, electrical, and compute testing depends on

• Develop test procedures and automation scripts in Python or LabVIEW for instrument

  control, test sequencing, and repeatable per-unit data capture

• Specify the chambers, loads, sensors, and bench equipment each campaign requires, and

  keep them calibrated, documented, and available to the program

• Execute the reliability test program across HALT, HASS, accelerated life, thermal cycling,

  vibration, humidity, shock, and burn-in on units and subassemblies

• Run functional verification and validation from the battery and power electronics through

  the enclosure, thermal system, and interfaces on EVT, DVT and PVT builds

• Execute the compute and GPU reliability testing together with the GPU infrastructure

  engineer, covering burn-in, thermal throttling, and telemetry-based failure detection

• Collect and analyze test data using statistical methods, Weibull and life-data analysis, and

  physics-of-failure reasoning

• Perform failure analysis and teardown on test and production failures, isolating root cause

  across the mechanical, electrical, and firmware boundaries

• Produce test reports carrying the data, the failure evidence, and the specific design or

  process recommendation to the responsible engineering group

• Run and maintain test labs and/or external test house partnerships, including the

  equipment, fixtures, calibration records, and per-unit test history

• Support field failure investigations and the closed-loop corrective action loop, from failure

  through analysis to corrective action implementation

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, or Reliability Engineering (or equivalent industry experience)

• Experience:
  
  4 to 7 years in hardware test and/or product validation engineering on energy storage, power electronics, grid-tied equipment, or electromechanical hardware

• Hands-on experience building test fixtures, harnesses, instrumentation, and data acquisition, and bringing a unit up on the bench to be stressed and measured

• Direct experience executing environmental and reliability stress testing, including HALT, HASS, accelerated life, thermal cycling, vibration, and humidity, against ASTM standards

• Proficiency with test automation and data analysis in Python or LabVIEW, and with bench instrumentation including oscilloscopes, data acquisition systems, multimeters, and loads

• Experience with failure analysis and root cause methods, and contributing failure-mode evidence to DFMEA and design reviews

• Working knowledge of energy storage and power electronics failure mechanisms, covering cells and battery systems, inverters and converters, thermal management, and outdoor enclosures

• Comfortable working on the floor alongside assembly technicians and in the field alongside installation crews

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to turn test data into recommendations design engineers will act on