ATE Technical Lead

Room at the Top Recruitment; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; Hybrid; GBP 29,000 - 47,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

25 days holiday pro rata

Job summary

Room at the Top Recruitment is seeking an ATE Technical Lead to spearhead the development, deployment and lifecycle ownership of Automated Test Equipment for a product line. The role combines hands-on leadership, cross-disciplinary project execution, and collaboration with manufacturing partners, with a 3 days onsite / 2 days home hybrid pattern.

The successful candidate will define test strategies, lead tester bring-up, drive production quality and coordinate with CMOs across time zones,

Job description

ATE Technical Lead

The R&D ATE team is looking for an ATE Technical Lead to lead the development, deployment, and lifecycle ownership of Automated Test Equipment for a product line.

This role combines hands‑on technical leadership, multidisciplinary project execution, production‑line support, and close collaboration with internal engineering teams and external manufacturing partners. The position on offer is a temporary contract role for 2 years offering hybrid working (3 days onsite and 2 days from home) with an hourly rate of 21.54 - 34.62 depending on experience, plus 25 days holiday pro rata per annum.

The ATE Technical Lead will define test strategies, guide tester architecture decisions, lead tester bring‑up, improve production quality and yield, and support scalable ATE implementation across manufacturing environments.

The role includes close day‑to‑day cooperation with Taiwanese Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO), including technical alignment, issue resolution, documentation transfer, production readiness, and coordination across time zones.

Join our client to work in a dynamic R&D environment that combines hardware, software, data, manufacturing, and connected‑device expertise, while leading mission‑critical testing platforms that directly influence product quality and operational excellence.

This is a great opportunity to Join as they build the team that will develop and deliver our future generations of Vence Collar. A product rich in technological challenges across the multidisciplinary domains with its advanced system architecture and connectivity. You will experience the success of your work in customers hands with short delivery cycles and quick customer feedback.

Role Functions:

The responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Lead the architecture, development, validation, deployment, and lifecycle management of ATE systems for a product line.
• Own the ATE technical roadmap, ensuring maintainability, standardisation, scalability, and alignment with product and production needs.
• Define tester requirements, test strategies, integration plans, acceptance criteria, documentation packages, and production transfer plans.
• Lead tester bring‑up and integration across mechanical, electronic, embedded, software, fixture, instrumentation, and production interfaces.
• Manage ATE project execution end‑to‑end, including requirements, design reviews, gate approvals, planning, scheduling, risk management, and stakeholder communication.
• Work closely with CMOs to support production readiness, tester deployment, issue escalation, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement across time zones.
• Coordinate technical activities with hardware, software, embedded, mechanical, operations, manufacturing engineering, quality, and external subcontractors.
• Provide Tier 2 and technical‑lead support for production ATE systems, including troubleshooting, calibration, failure analysis, reliability improvement, and yield optimisation.
• Analyze test and manufacturing data to identify trends, root causes, yield improvements, and opportunities for process optimisation.

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary product and platform teams in the UK, Israel and California, USA.

Experience, Knowledge and Skills include:

The position requires multidisciplinary understanding, strong hands‑on technical capabilities, and the ability to work effectively in a multi‑site matrix organisation. The candidate should be comfortable leading technical topics while working closely with system engineers, hardware engineers, embedded software developers, mechanical engineers, production teams, quality teams, subcontractors, and CMOs.

Skills & Characteristics:

• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to lead complex technical topics from concept to production implementation.
• Ability to focus on what is important, prioritise risks, and drive issues to practical resolution.
• Organised and able to work well in a structured process environment with clear documentation and follow‑up.
• Strong hands‑on approach, including debugging, tester bring‑up, system integration, and production troubleshooting.
• Ability to communicate clearly across disciplines, sites, vendors, and time zones.
• Excellent team player with strong collaboration skills and a desire for learning and innovation.
• Comfortable working with external partners and manufacturing sites, including technical alignment with CMOs.

Qualifications, Education and Previous Experience include:

Requirements:

• B.Sc. or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Minimum 5 years of hands‑on experience in ATE system integration, development, validation, deployment, and production support.
• Proven experience leading technical projects in a multidisciplinary engineering or manufacturing environment.
• Strong hands‑on expertise with hardware systems, embedded interfaces, networks, instrumentation, debugging, and system‑level integration.
• Strong hands‑on experience with National Instruments TestStand, automated test development, hardware integration, and production support environments, or equivalent automated test platforms.
• Proficiency in Python and test automation development, including debugging, tool creation, data processing, and system integration.
• Strong analytical skills for test data analysis, failure investigation, process improvement, and yield optimisation.

Advantage:

• Experience working with Linux‑based systems, command‑line tools, and SQL databases in engineering or manufacturing environments.
• Experience with manufacturing databases, production data pipelines, and engineering data analysis tools.
• Experience with hardware communication protocols such as I2C, SPI, UART, Ethernet, or similar embedded and instrumentation interfaces.
• Experience with automated instrumentation, fixture design considerations, tester safety, calibration, and production maintainability.
• Knowledge of server, platform, and test‑station management in production environments.
• Experience working with subcontractors, external vendors, CMO production teams, and procurement processes for tester or prototype parts.