Engineering Manager, Hardware Validation
About The Position
As the Manager of Hardware System Validation, you will lead a 0-to-1 initiative to establish Applied Intuition's hardware system validation department. You will own hardware validation and reliability testing across products for automotive, trucking, defense, construction, mining, and agriculture. Working directly with external automotive and defense customers, you will hire, scale, and lead a multidisciplinary team spanning electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, software automation, and systems engineering to ensure hardware meets strict KPI and quality targets. The role involves building and scaling the validation function, defining and executing system test plans and reliability processes, translating customer operational requirements into rigorous test specifications, and ensuring hardware meets electrical, mechanical, environmental, and system-level KPIs. You will also develop automated test scripts and software pipelines to improve test coverage and validation cycles. Applied Intuition is an in-office company. Full-time employees are expected primarily to work from an Applied Intuition office five days a week, with occasional flexibility for remote work and schedule adjustments. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has additional offices in the United States and internationally.
Requirements
- Bachelor's or master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 10+ years of experience in hardware system validation, testing, and reliability engineering.
- 5+ years of experience leading and managing cross-functional technical teams, including electrical, mechanical, automation, and systems engineers.
- Mixed product background spanning consumer electronics and one or more of the target sectors: automotive, trucking, defense, construction, mining, or agriculture.
- Deep expertise defining hardware system test requirements, environmental reliability tests, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation setups.
- Hands-on coding proficiency in Python, C++, or scripting languages for test automation, data analysis, and hardware control.
Nice To Haves
- Hands-on experience shipping high-complexity hardware in both early-stage startup (0-to-1) and mass-production environments.
- Familiarity with automotive reliability standards such as ISO 16750 and AEC-Q100, or MIL-STD environmental testing protocols.
- Strong commitment to customer success and raising technical quality bars across complex hardware platforms.
Responsibilities
- Build the hardware system validation function from 0 to 1 and scale the team cross-functionally.
- Define, architect, and execute system test plans and reliability validation processes across hardware products.
- Hire and direct a validation engineering team across electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, software automation, and systems engineering.
- Work directly with external customers to translate operational requirements into rigorous hardware validation test specifications.
- Ensure physical AI hardware products meet electrical, mechanical, environmental, and system-level KPIs.
- Develop automated test execution scripts and software pipelines to streamline test coverage and hardware validation cycles.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
