Hardware Test Engineer"

Specter•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Specter is hiring a Hardware Test Engineer to develop and own our hardware test and qualification program. Our products operate in extremely demanding outdoor environments, and our customers depend on near-100% uptime. This role is central to delivering on that expectation. You will define how we validate our hardware, execute testing, manage certifications, and make sure the data you generate gets fed back into design decisions so that reliability improves with every revision.

Requirements

5+ years of hardware test and qualification experience in automotive, aerospace, defense, or industrial applications.
Deep working knowledge of environmental, mechanical, and electrical stress test methodology and the judgment to set appropriate test conditions for a given product and deployment environment.
Experience writing DVT test plans from product requirements through execution and reporting.
Strong data analysis skills: ability to process test datasets, characterize margins statistically, identify trends across test campaigns, and present findings clearly to engineering and leadership audiences.
Hands-on proficiency with environmental chambers, vibration equipment, EMC instrumentation, and general bench tools.
Python scripting ability sufficient to sequence automated tests using existing frameworks and instrumentation APIs.
Experience managing external test and certification labs.
Strong written and verbal communication. You will write test procedures, reports, and equipment justifications that need to be clear, auditable, and illustrative.

Nice To Haves

Experience with EMC pre-compliance and formal certification testing (FCC, CISPR, UL).
Experience with products deployed in extreme outdoor environments (wide temperature range, UV, salt fog, IP-rated enclosures).
Background in solar/battery-powered or low-power electronics.
UL or other product safety certification experience.
Experience defining manufacturing test coverage and working with contract manufacturers on functional test.
Familiarity with failure analysis techniques (cross-sectioning, X-ray, SEM).
Exposure to functional safety concepts relevant to robotics and autonomous systems.
Prior experience building a test function or team from scratch at an early-stage hardware company.

Responsibilities

Own all hardware test planning and execution across DVT, production validation, and certification milestones.
Formalize and maintain the reliability test suite. Take draft test procedures to full documentation with pass/fail criteria, sample sizes, fixture requirements, and traceability to product requirements.
Build DVT test plans covering environmental, mechanical, electrical stress, EMC, and lifetime testing.
Hands-on test execution: set up fixtures, run chambers, collect data, analyze results, and write test reports.
Analyze test data to characterize design margins, identify failure mode trends, and provide quantitative input into design reviews and clear-to-ship decisions.
Perform pre-compliance EMC testing in-house and manage external lab relationships for formal FCC, UL, and CISPR certification submissions.
Help define manufacturing test coverage requirements.
Own field failure triage and root cause analysis. Ensure lessons learned get fed back into the test program and design process.
Build business cases for test-specific capital equipment and manage procurement.
As the team grows, hire, mentor, and lead a test engineering team.