Hardware Test Lead

Specter•San Francisco, CA

17h

About The Position

Your job is to build the machine that hunts down our hardware's weaknesses and gets that data in front of the people who can fix them. You will guide what we test, how hard, what's automated, what stays in-house, what goes to a lab—and the culture that grows up around it. About Specter Specter’s mission is to help customers automate the physical world. Today, we build video sensors with state-of-the-art AI agents that answer any question, anywhere in their environments. Our systems can automatically detect and reason about any physical activity captured on camera, from security incidents (e.g. perimeter intrusion, theft, LPR), to safety monitoring (e.g. PPE detection, injured people), to operational efficiency (e.g. material tracking, congestion monitoring). We offer both long range wireless (1km range) and wired sensor variants to suit any deployment. The Role Establish the hardware test system, team, and culture. Define what good testing looks like here—what tests need running, when, and why; what evidence counts; where the bar sits; and how seriously we treat a failure. Derive reliability and abuse-test requirements from how our products actually get deployed and mistreated, and make sure every campaign's data lands back in design decisions. We're small, so you'll still get your hands dirty establishing the team, facilities, equipment, systems, and culture. Concretely, here are some of the things you'll work on in the first few months: - Own DVT and certification — Plan and run DVT campaigns covering environmental, mechanical, and electrical stress, EMC, abuse, HALT, and lifetime reliability. Run pre-compliance EMC in-house; drive FCC, CE (EN/CISPR), and UL submissions through external labs. - Systematize our qualification — Codify our qualification campaigns: how we decide what testing to run, pass/fail criteria, sample sizes, traceability, and how we document it. - Reliability and abuse testing — Work out what the field will do to our hardware, and decide how to stress it to establish margin beyond our ratings. - Close the loop — Establish RCA practice for field failures, and fold every lesson back into the test suite and the next design revision. - Automate — Anything we run 3x gets scripted. Push testing into fixtures and automation so every new product gains coverage faster. - Build vs. outsource — Choose what we test in-house versus send out. Manage lab relationships, and build the business case for capital equipment when owning the gear wins. - Build the team and the culture — Set the standard for how testing is done and how failures are treated, so it survives contact with growth. As we scale, hire and mentor test engineers into it—starting with the one we're hiring alongside you. This is an early-stage team—you'll define how hardware qualification works here and how it scales as the product line and production ramp.

Requirements

5+ years of hardware test and qualification experience in automotive, aerospace, defense, or industrial products.
Personal experience taking hardware through DVT and certification, end to end.
Deep knowledge of reliability, abuse, environmental, and electrical stress test methodology.
Instinct to set test conditions based on the product's actual deployment.
Experience writing DVT plans from product requirements through execution and reporting, and holding the exit bar.
Ability to characterize margins statistically, spot trends across campaigns, and present findings that engineering and leadership can act on.
Hands-on experience with environmental chambers, electronics test gear, EMC instrumentation, vibration equipment, and general bench tools.
Sufficient Python and Linux skills to sequence automated tests using existing frameworks and instrument APIs, and comfort in a Linux shell.
Experience managing external labs, negotiating test scope, and justifying equipment spend.
Clear writing skills for auditable and readable procedures, reports, and equipment justifications.

Nice To Haves

Formal certification experience (FCC, CE, or UL submissions driven end-to-end).
Experience with extreme-environment products (wide temperature range, UV, salt fog, IP-rated enclosures; solar/battery or low-power electronics).
Experience with manufacturing test (defining production test coverage and working with contract manufacturers on functional test).
Knowledge of failure analysis techniques (cross-sectioning, X-ray, SEM).
Experience standing up a test function or team from scratch at an early-stage hardware company.

Responsibilities

Establish the hardware test system, team, and culture.
Define what good testing looks like: what tests need running, when, and why; what evidence counts; where the bar sits; and how seriously we treat a failure.
Derive reliability and abuse-test requirements from how our products actually get deployed and mistreated, and make sure every campaign's data lands back in design decisions.
Establish the team, facilities, equipment, systems, and culture.
Own DVT and certification: Plan and run DVT campaigns covering environmental, mechanical, and electrical stress, EMC, abuse, HALT, and lifetime reliability.
Run pre-compliance EMC in-house; drive FCC, CE (EN/CISPR), and UL submissions through external labs.
Systematize qualification: Codify qualification campaigns, including how to decide what testing to run, pass/fail criteria, sample sizes, traceability, and documentation.
Conduct reliability and abuse testing: Determine how the field will affect hardware and decide how to stress it to establish margin beyond ratings.
Close the loop: Establish RCA practice for field failures and fold every lesson back into the test suite and the next design revision.
Automate testing: Script tests that are run multiple times and push testing into fixtures and automation.
Decide what to test in-house versus outsource: Manage lab relationships and build the business case for capital equipment.
Build the team and the culture: Set the standard for how testing is done and how failures are treated.
Hire and mentor test engineers as the company scales.