Diagnostics & Controls Lead

laurelin; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Laurelin is seeking a dedicated engineer to build the first machine diagnostics and data-acquisition stack. You will own the timing, sensor integration, and telemetry framework to command shots safely and capture decisive data in a fast, high-EMI environment.

You will work with the founder and early hires to define signals, calibrations, data provenance, and interlocks, delivering a compact, rigorous system that scales with the machine.

Qualifications

• Experience designing or commissioning diagnostics, controls, or data-acquisition systems for timing-critical hardware.
• Strong understanding of signal integrity, grounding, isolation, synchronization, calibration, and uncertainty.
• Ability to write reliable controls and data software while staying hands-on with instruments and test hardware.
• Evidence of turning ambiguous measurements into defensible engineering decisions.
• Clear judgment on the minimum system required for safe, informative experiments.

Responsibilities

• Define the initial timing, sensor, data-acquisition, controls, interlock, and telemetry architecture.
• Select and integrate current, voltage, magnetic, optical, vacuum, and machine-state measurements.
• Establish calibration, synchronization, isolation, grounding, shielding, and data-quality practices for high-EMI pulsed operation.
• Build deterministic shot sequencing and operator controls with abort paths and safe states.
• Create shot records preserving configuration, calibration, timing, raw data, and provenance.
• Investigate anomalous signals to determine their origin (machine, sensor, path, or analysis).

Skills

Diagnostics design

Signal integrity

Controls software

Engineering decisions

System safety

Tools

FPGA

Real-time timing

Fiber isolation

Job description

The role Build the first machine with us.Laurelin’s first experimental program would depend on trustworthy measurements in a fast, electrically hostile environment. This role would own the minimum diagnostic and controls stack needed to command a shot safely, align timing, capture high-value signals, and distinguish real machine behavior from instrumentation artifacts. You would work directly with founder Joe Finberg and the other first technical hires to define signals, bandwidths, calibration paths, data provenance, interlocks, and acceptance gates. The goal is not a sprawling controls platform; it is a compact, rigorous system that produces decisive data and can grow with the machine.

What you would own

• Define the initial timing, sensor, data-acquisition, controls, interlock, and telemetry architecture.
• Select and integrate current, voltage, magnetic, optical, vacuum, position, and machine-state measurements appropriate to each test stage.
• Establish calibration, synchronization, isolation, grounding, shielding, and data-quality practices for high-EMI pulsed operation.
• Build deterministic shot sequencing and operator controls with explicit safe states and abort paths.
• Create shot records that preserve configuration, calibration, timing, raw data, analysis provenance, and acceptance outcomes.
• Investigate anomalous signals and prove whether they originate in the machine, sensor, transmission path, acquisition chain, or analysis.

What we are looking for

• Experience designing or commissioning diagnostics, controls, or data-acquisition systems for timing-critical physical hardware.
• Strong understanding of signal integrity, grounding, isolation, synchronization, calibration, and uncertainty.
• Ability to write reliable controls and data software while remaining hands-on with instruments, cabling, sensors, and test hardware.
• Evidence of turning ambiguous measurements into defensible engineering decisions.
• Clear judgment about the minimum system required for safe, informative experiments.

Especially useful

• Experience with plasma, pulsed-power, accelerator, fusion, high-field magnet, or similarly high-EMI experiments.
• Familiarity with FPGA or real-time timing, fast digitizers, fiber isolation, and high-bandwidth probes.
• Experience establishing shot-data schemas, automated quality checks, or experiment-control software from scratch.