Instrument Design Engineer​/Scientist

The Company

You probably know Stanford Research Systems (SRS) from our 40+ year history designing and manufacturing test equipment for research. Products include lock-in amplifiers, atomic clocks, mass spectrometers, vacuum and gas analyzers, lasers and laser controllers, signal sources, and signal analyzers. Less well known is that our R&D staff are mostly experimentalists—often PhDs in physics, chemistry, or electrical engineering.

The successful applicant will join a new instrument team. These teams require capable individuals with diverse talents. The ideal candidate, while good at data analysis and communication, finds their real passion lies in the lab. That might mean optimizing Verilog on an FPGA, or programming embedded microcontrollers to automate what used to be controlled manually. Perhaps you are the person in your lab that makes the little boxes that glue experiments together, with your dog-eared copy of Horowitz and Hills' The Art of Electronics always nearby.

You should have some experience with one or more of the following: electronics (microcontrollers, FPGAs, ADCs, DACs, PLLs, analog, digital, RF, schematic capture, PCB design), mechanical design, software, firmware, HDL, and algorithm design. Teams work best when programmers can read schematics, when electronic designers are conversant in code design, and when everyone can contribute to the timely delivery of a powerful, user-friendly instrument.

Even if you've never built an instrument, if you own a soldering iron, have built electronic boxes, have written code to control an experiment, enjoy the technology of measurement as much as the result itself, understand noise, Fourier transforms and op-amps, have used a spectrometer, vacuum pump, or CAD system, then you may be who we are looking for.

If this sounds like you, we would very much like to talk.

There is no specific educational requirement. While a majority of R&D engineers at the company hold a PhD in physics, electrical engineering, or chemistry, we understand that experience, capability, and the enjoyment of 'making things work' can come in many forms. Candidates should have strong written and oral communications skills and must have a legal right to work in the US.

Multiple openings.

We will have senior members of our R&D team on-site at the 2026 DAMOP conference in Providence, RI, to meet with candidates.

Salary range for entry-level Instrument Design Engineer/Scientist is $80,000 to $130,000 per year, commensurate with talent and skills. SRS offers a complete benefits package including health and dental insurance, matching 401k retirement plan, and paid time off. Relocation assistance is available. Salary is reviewed annually.

Stanford Research Systems (SRS) designs and manufactures scientific, analytical, and engineering test equipment for research and industrial applications. The Company is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and offers competitive compensation and a complete benefits package. See  for additional information on the Company's products, markets, and location.