Test Systems Engineer

Tau • Redwood City, CA

4d • $91,000 - $239,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The lab is where every engineering claim gets checked against reality. If the data's untrustworthy, every downstream decision, design, program timeline, and customer commitment inherits that risk without anyone noticing until it's expensive. This role owns that. You're responsible for the test infrastructure, the standards it runs on, and the judgment call on what's good enough to trust. You'll work across Mechanical, Power Electronics, Controls, Embedded Software, Manufacturing, and Program Management, and you'll have real authority to say a system isn't ready, a result isn't credible, or a process needs to change, and make that stick. We want someone who biases toward structure: documented, repeatable, built to outlast any one person's memory of how it works. Not because process is the point, but because at 40-50 people and growing, tribal knowledge is a liability. At the same time, this isn't a role where you build the org chart and step back. You're in the lab. You're commissioning systems, debugging with the team at 6pm, mentoring technicians on measurement methods. Player-coach, not dictator. You set the standard by being good enough at the work that people want to follow suit, not standards by decree.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, Controls Engineering, or a closely related field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Several years developing, commissioning, or improving complex test systems.
• Relevant backgrounds: electric powertrains, dynamometers, aerospace test, automotive test, industrial automation, robotics, energy systems. Anywhere measurement quality and equipment reliability were treated as non-negotiable.
• Electrical, mechatronic, mechanical, or controls system design
• Instrumentation, sensors, signal conditioning, DAQ architecture
• Controls integration and lab automation
• High-voltage safety, interlocks, e-stops, fault handling
• Calibration, uncertainty analysis, correlation, repeatability
• Commissioning and troubleshooting complex systems
• Root-cause analysis and structured problem solving
• Python, LabVIEW, PLCs, or comparable automation tools

Responsibilities

• Own the dynamometers, inverter test systems, environmental support systems, and lab infrastructure end to end
• Set the standards for what counts as commissioned, calibrated, and trustworthy, and hold the org to them
• Plan and execute capability upgrades with minimal disruption to active programs
• Translate engineering objectives into safe, repeatable test capability
• Integrate mechanical, electrical, controls, instrumentation, cooling, automation, and safety systems
• Own the safety philosophy: interlocks, e-stop logic, fault handling, operator protection
• Commission and validate systems before engineering release. Nothing goes live on your say alone until it's earned it
• Specify sensors, instrumentation, DAQ architecture
• Build measurement strategies that answer the actual engineering question, not just collect numbers
• Validate accuracy through calibration, uncertainty analysis, correlation, repeatability
• Be the person who can say, credibly, "trust this data" or "don't"
• Run preventive maintenance, calibration, troubleshooting, repair
• Own lab organization, documentation, safety, and operating procedure as an operating system, not a set of one-off fixes
• Eliminate recurring issues through durable corrective action, not repeated patching
• Support procurement and lab upkeep where it affects test capability
• Partner with Mechanical, Power Electronics, Embedded Software, Controls, Manufacturing, Program Management, suppliers, and customers
• Push back on requirements, timelines, or designs when the lab side can't safely or credibly support them
• Translate cross-functional input into test capability that actually answers the question being asked
• Mentor engineers and technicians in measurement method, safe operation, and lab standards
• Build capability that scales. The goal is a lab that runs at this standard whether or not you're in the room that day
• Operationalize Tau's engineering principles into how the lab actually runs day to day, not just how it's described

Benefits

• annual performance bonus
• equity
• other incentive compensation plans
• Flexible time off
• paid holidays
• Excellent medical, dental, vision & life insurance
• Comprehensive benefits including 401(k), HSA and FSA benefits, commuter benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior