DC Instrument Board Lead

Teradyne; North Reading (MA); On-site; USD 141,000 - 226,000; Full time

Job summary

Teradyne in North Reading, MA is seeking an experienced hardware engineer to own the DC instrument boards from architecture through volume release. You will design high-current power supplies and four-quadrant source-measure instruments, translating system specs into board-level requirements and guiding layout and bring-up.

You will analyze power integrity, mitigate droop and overshoot, simulate control loops, and lead hardware bring-up with cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in electrical engineering or equivalent experience.
• Six or more years in power electronics, precision analog, source-measure, or instrumentation hardware design.
• Experience owning a board from architecture through production release.

Responsibilities

• Translate system specifications into board-level requirements and tradeoffs across accuracy, transient response, density, power, thermal performance, cost, and schedule.
• Architect DC sourcing and measurement circuits from microamps to more than 100 A.
• Develop fast-response voltage/current forcing, droop control, range switching, references, sequencing, and power distribution.
• Design four-quadrant output stages, including bidirectional power delivery and regulation.
• Verify safe operating area across required voltage and current ranges.
• Own force and measurement paths, including sensing, ranging, guarding, Kelvin sensing, settling, and leakage performance.
• Lead schematic capture, component selection, design-for-cost, and multilayer PCB layout direction.
• Analyze power integrity across instrument, cabling, load board, and device under test.
• Analyze and mitigate droop, overshoot, ringing, and ground bounce during fast load transitions.
• Simulate control-loop stability, compensation, and transient response across sourcing, sinking, reactive loads, and operating quadrants.
• Maintain error budgets for offset, gain, drift, noise, leakage, and thermal effects.
• Design protection for overcurrent, overvoltage, overtemperature, short circuits, and fault isolation.
• Lead hardware bring-up and root-cause failures across hardware, firmware, software, and system interfaces.
• Execute characterization plans for regulation, transient response, efficiency, thermal behavior, fault handling, noise, and drift.
• Guide the design through compliance, DFM/DFT, pilot build, and volume release.

Skills

Power electronics

Instrumentation hardware design

Four-quadrant instruments

Schematic capture

PCB design tools

Lab measurement experience

Python or MATLAB

Contract manufacturers coordination

Education

Bachelor's or master's degree in electrical engineering

Tools

SPICE simulation

PCB design tools

Lab measurement equipment

Job description

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Date:

Sep 10, 2026

Location:

North Reading, MA, US

We are the global test and automation specialists, powering next-generation technologies through sophisticated solutions. Behind every electronic device you use, Teradyne's test technology ensures your device works right the first time, every time! Our portfolio of automation solutions help manufacturers to develop and deliver products quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Together,Teradyne companies deliver manufacturing automation across industries and applications around the world!

We attract, develop, and retain a high-performance workforce, comprised of people with diverse backgrounds and a shared drive for excellence. We strive to foster a positive and inclusive work environment that helps employees, and communities, thrive.

Our Purpose

At Teradyne, our employees work at the cutting edge of the electronics test industry. The semiconductor devices going into phones, cars, data centers, and AI accelerators are tested on our equipment before they ship. Our instruments help set the standard for what the industry can measure and how confidently it can ship silicon.

Opportunity Overview

Every device our customers test is powered, biased, and measured by a DC instrument. As devices move to lower core voltages, higher currents, and faster load steps, DC performance has become one of the most challenging constraints in semiconductor test. A few millivolts of droop or a few microamps of leakage error can affect whether a device passes, fails, or is placed in the correct performance category.

The DC Hardware Group designs DC instrumentation used across Teradyne’s automated test equipment. This includes high-current device power supplies that provide fast-transient voltage sourcing from milliamps to more than 100 A, as well as four-quadrant source-measure instruments that provide bidirectional force and measurement across all voltage and current quadrants.

The group owns these modules from concept through production release and works closely with firmware, mechanical, software, calibration, test, and manufacturing engineering. These boards establish key platform performance characteristics, including noise floor, settling time, accuracy, and transient response.

We are looking for an experienced hardware engineer to serve as the technical owner of one or more DC instrument boards. You will own the design from architecture and schematic development through layout direction, bring-up, characterization, qualification, and volume release. Depending on program requirements, the board may be a high-current device power supply or a four-quadrant source-measure instrument.

Design and Own the Board

• Translate system specifications into board-level requirements and tradeoffs across accuracy, transient response, density, power, thermal performance, cost, and schedule.
• Architect DC sourcing and measurement circuits from microamps to more than 100 A.
• Develop fast-response voltage/current forcing, droop control, range switching, references, sequencing, and power distribution.
• Design four-quadrant output stages, including bidirectional power delivery, quadrant crossover, regulation, and compliance clamping.
• Verify safe operating area across required voltage and current ranges.
• Own force and measurement paths, including sensing, ranging, guarding, Kelvin sensing, settling, and leakage performance.
• Lead schematic capture, component selection, design-for-cost, and multilayer PCB layout direction.

Analyze, Protect, and Validate

• Optimize power integrity across the instrument, cabling, load board, and device under test.
• Analyze and mitigate droop, overshoot, ringing, and ground bounce during fast load transitions.
• Simulate control-loop stability, compensation, and transient response across sourcing, sinking, reactive loads, and operating quadrants.
• Maintain error budgets for offset, gain, drift, noise, leakage, and thermal effects.
• Design protection for overcurrent, overvoltage, overtemperature, short circuits, and fault isolation.
• Lead hardware bring-up and root-cause failures across hardware, firmware, software, and system interfaces.
• Execute characterization plans for regulation, transient response, efficiency, thermal behavior, fault handling, noise, and drift.
• Guide the design through compliance, DFM/DFT, pilot build, and volume release.

Integrate and Lead

• Ensure the module meets ATE requirements for timing, triggering, synchronization, calibration, and software control.
• Partner with firmware on control loops, telemetry, calibration, sequencing, and fault reporting.
• Serve as the board’s primary technical contact across programs and engineering disciplines.
• Manage board-level schedules, risks, mitigations, and recovery plans.
• Mentor engineers and review schematics, simulations, analyses, and characterization results.
• Develop reusable circuit blocks, design guidelines, and engineering standards.
• Guide vendors and contractors and support field-issue investigations.

All About You

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in electrical engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Six or more years in power electronics, precision analog, source-measure, or instrumentation hardware design.
• Experience owning a board from architecture through production release.
• Strong knowledge of regulation, power-stage design, feedback systems, control-loop stability, power integrity, transient analysis, and PDNs.
• Experience with precision analog circuits, including operational amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers, references, and ADC/DAC interfaces.
• Experience with bidirectional or four-quadrant circuitry, including source/sink stages, current-mode regulation, compliance clamping, source-measure units, electronic loads, bipolar supplies, or battery-emulation channels.
• Proficiency with SPICE simulation, PDN modeling, schematic capture, PCB design tools, and multilayer mixed-signal layout.
• Hands-on lab experience with power measurement equipment and high-current test configurations.
• Ability to troubleshoot across hardware, firmware, software, and system interfaces.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, influence without authority, and clear engineering communication.
• Experience designing automated test equipment instrumentation, device power supplies, four-quadrant instruments, bench metrology equipment, electronic loads, or battery-emulation products.
• Knowledge of dynamic voltage scaling, digital power control, telemetry, FPGA, and microcontroller interfaces such as SPI, I2C, and LVDS.
• Experience with high-channel-count designs, thermal modeling, heatsink design, derating, reliability engineering, and long-term stress testing.
• Experience with hardware/firmware co-debug and Python or MATLAB for characterization, automation, or data analysis.
• Experience working with contract manufacturers and improving DFM/DFT.

Weareonlyconsideringcandidateslocaltopositionlocationandareunabletoproviderelocationforthisposition.

Thispositionisnoteligibleforsponsorship.

Compensation:

The base salary range for this role is $141,400 - $226,200. This range is a good faith estimate, and the amount of base salary will correspond with experience and skill set. This range can also fluctuate depending on demand and location.

Incentive Plan:

This job is eligible for discretionary bonus(es) based on financial performance.

Benefits:

Teradyne offers a variety of robust health and well-being benefit programs, including medical, dental, vision, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plans, life and disability insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, and more. Please click here to see details.

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Testing, Firmware, Hardware Engineer, Electrical Engineering, Instrumentation, Technology, Engineering