Test Engineer

Subsense•Palo Alto, CA

43d•$120,000 - $140,000

About The Position

Subsense is a deep-tech company developing the worldâ€™s first non-surgical, bidirectional brain-computer interface powered by plasmonic and magnetoelectric nanoparticles. Our mission is to unlock direct communication between the human brain and AI - starting with medical applications such as stroke recovery and moving toward cognitive enhancement for healthy users. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Subsense brings together leading scientists and engineers to redefine the future of humanâ€“machine interaction. We are looking for a hands-on Test Engineer to help build, validate, and improve the laboratory systems, instrumentation, and test workflows that support our breakthrough neurotechnology platform. In this role, you will work at the intersection of hardware, software, data acquisition, and experimental science. You will develop and execute test plans, build automated and semi-automated test tools, validate hardware/software behavior, troubleshoot system issues, and help ensure that experimental platforms are reliable, repeatable, and ready to support fast-moving R&D. You will partner closely with hardware, software, research, data science, and product teams to turn early prototypes into robust, usable test systems. This includes testing instrument control software, validating data acquisition pipelines, supporting hardware/software integration, documenting system performance, and improving confidence in experimental results through structured testing and validation.

Requirements

Python-based software development
Desktop user interface development
Software abstraction layers over vendor SDKs, PyVISA/SCPI, serial, USB/Ethernet, DAQ systems, analog/digital I/O, and equipment-specific APIs.
Experiment orchestration software development
Testing and validation of software
Hardware/software interface specification definition and documentation
Data acquisition and logging pipeline development
Management of software environments, drivers, dependencies, and deployment
Writing tests, simulations, and validation tools
Troubleshooting device communication, hardware integration, data acquisition, user interfaces, and experiment workflows
Collaboration with hardware, research, data science, and product teams
Establishing engineering patterns, documentation practices, and code quality standards

Responsibilities

Design and build Python-based software to control, coordinate, monitor, and visualize signals from sophisticated laboratory hardware.
Design and build desktop user interfaces and internal tools to this end
Develop software abstraction layers over vendor SDKs, PyVISA/SCPI, serial, USB/Ethernet, DAQ systems, analog/digital I/O, and equipment-specific APIs.
Implement experiment orchestration software that coordinates multiple instruments, manages timing, handles triggers, and supports synchronized data acquisition.
Test and validate software used to control, coordinate, monitor, and visualize signals from sophisticated laboratory hardware.
Work with hardware engineers to define and document hardware/software interface specifications
Build reliable data acquisition and logging pipelines for raw signals, instrument state, metadata, calibration information, and experimental outputs in collaboration with data scientists/engineers.
Manage software environments, drivers, dependencies, and deployment across laboratory computers and hardware-connected systems.
Write tests, simulations, and validation tools to improve reliability, maintainability, and confidence in hardware/software behavior.
Troubleshoot issues spanning device communication, hardware integration, data acquisition, user interfaces, and experiment workflows.
Partner with hardware, research, data science, and product teams to turn early prototypes into robust, usable laboratory systems.
Help establish engineering patterns, documentation practices, and code quality standards as the team grows.