Instrumentation Engineer - New Grad (Summer 2027)

Nominal•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

Nominal is seeking students with solid engineering fundamentals who are on track to graduate in Summer 2027 or sooner. The role is described as an Instrumentation internship, working at the boundary between software and physical test hardware to integrate Nominal solutions into real test stands, hardware instrumentation stacks, and live control systems. The work includes writing software that communicates directly with field hardware in test stands, clean rooms, and industrial setups, with work reaching customer test campaigns within weeks. The position involves developing hardware interfaces, automating test data collection and control, contributing to Nominal’s open-source instrumentation library, and working on-site with engineers to configure and troubleshoot integrations. The intern owns a scoped hardware-software integration project with mentorship from the instrumentation and product teams.

Requirements

Be graduating in Summer 2027 or sooner and be interested in a full-time position.
Have hands-on experience with data acquisition systems, test instruments such as power supplies, electronic loads, DMMs, or oscilloscopes, embedded hardware, or industrial controllers, through coursework, research, or a team such as solar car, formula racing, or robotics.
Have strong Python and/or Rust fundamentals.
Be comfortable reading hardware manuals and communication protocol specifications.
Have prior experience contributing to open source or building hardware abstraction layers.
Have a strong interest in developing software that influences the behavior of high-impact electromechanical systems.
Be ambitious, resourceful, resilient, and persistent when troubleshooting, as described by peers.
Meet the stated ITAR-related eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Responsibilities

Write reliable, performant Python and/or Rust software to interface with customer hardware using PyVISA, industrial protocols, and proprietary vendor SDKs such as NI-DAQmx, LabJack, and Dewesoft.
Help automate data collection and control processes across hardware test environments.
Contribute new drivers and instruments to the open-source instrumentation library, instro.
Work on-site alongside engineers to get test setups running and troubleshoot live hardware-software integrations.
Own a scoped hardware-software integration project from start to finish, with mentorship from instrumentation and product teams.