Field Applications Engineer

Breakout Ventures; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Full benefits

Equity

Job summary

Transfyr is seeking a Field Applications Engineer - Member of the Technical Staff to bridge cutting-edge AI with real-world lab environments in Cambridge, MA. You will manage hardware procurement, assembly, field deployment, and customer success, partnering with scientists to tailor sensor layouts for complex experiments.

You’ll travel nationwide (up to 25%), work closely with hardware and software teams, and drive platform evolution based on field feedback and science workflows.

Qualifications

• Experience deploying physical hardware and networking installations in complex environments.
• Directly engaging with customers to identify pain points and implement technical solutions.
• Familiarity with sensor integration (vision, audio, IoT), networking basics, and edge system maintenance.

Responsibilities

• Lead hardware procurement and assembly for multi-sensor arrays and edge compute kits.
• Design and execute robustness tests on hardware configurations before field deployment.
• Own end-to-end installation and setup at customer sites; address site infrastructure challenges.
• Collaborate with scientists to tailor sensor placements and edge inference solutions.
• Translate field observations into requirements for hardware, software, perception, and AI/ML teams.
• Own post-deployment customer value, triage hardware/software issues, and surface quick-win insights.

Skills

Deployment & Support

Customer Engineering

Hardware Fundamentals

Data Infrastructure

Science / Process Development

Job description

Field Applications Engineer - Member of the Technical Staff

About Transfyr

Transfyr is building physical AI for science, and the world’s largest commercial dataset on real-world scientific execution.

Why is it that a professional athlete has dramatically more information about every play they make than a scientist has about the cause of any experimental failure? At Transfyr, we are building the infrastructure to make real-world scientific work legible, transferable, and reproducible. Right now this looks like: sensors (vision, audio, environmental, etc.) in real laboratory environments, and a platform that records and analyzes multimodal data about how scientific work is performed. This foundation is critical not only for driving elite human performance today, but for enabling meaningful automation tomorrow.

Want to learn more? You can read some of our writings here.

The Role

Field Application Engineers at Transfyr are the bridge between our cutting-edge AI technology and the real-world laboratory environments where science happens.

You will be responsible for the physical realization of Transfyr’s platform at customer sites. This involves everything from hardware procurement and assembly to field deployment and customer success. You are working side-by-side with scientists to solve their most complex experimental problems and ensuring our platform evolves to meet their reality.

This role is in-person in Cambridge, MA, with significant travel nationwide (up to 25%)?

What you’ll accomplish with us:

• Hardware Procurement & Assembly: Lead the sourcing and physical assembly of multi-sensor arrays, networking infrastructure, and edge compute kits, managing logistics to ensure timely deployments.

• Robustness Testing: Design and execute rigorous stress tests on hardware configurations before they hit the field to ensure reliable operation in varied laboratory conditions.

• Customer Field Deployment: Own the end-to-end installation and setup process at customer sites, overcoming site-specific infrastructure challenges to get sensors live and data flowing.

• Scientific Problem Solving: Partner with customer scientists to understand their workflows and design bespoke sensor placements or solutions that make their specific experiments legible. This role can grow to include customer‑specific edge inference infrastructure.

• Internal Synthesis & Growth: Translate field observations and customer feedback into structured requirements for our Hardware, Software, Perception, and AI/ML teams, driving the next generation of Transfyr’s capabilities.

• Customer Success: Own the customer's realized value post‑deployment. Triage and resolve first‑line hardware/software issues in the field, and proactively surface quick‑win opportunities by translating platform data into actionable insights on their scientific workflows.

Who you are:

• High agency. You don’t wait for perfect specs, detailed tickets, or constant direction. You notice what needs to be done, anticipate downstream needs, and take ownership of pushing important work across the finish line.

• Biased toward action. You value momentum, can move quickly without being careless, and know when to trade elegance for progress.

• Successful in ambiguity. You can turn incomplete context into working software, ask the right questions when needed, and make reasonable assumptions when answers aren’t available yet.

• Thoughtful. You can balance speed, correctness, and long‑term maintainability, and you understand that the right tradeoff depends on the moment.

• Clear, direct communicator. You close loops, surface issues early, and work effectively with colleagues who may not share your technical background.

• Intense. You care deeply about the mission, are willing to work hard when it matters, and take pride in helping a small team do outsized work.

What you know:

• Deployment & Support: Experience managing physical hardware and networking installations and providing technical support in complex environments. Bonus points if you have experience deploying solutions in scientific laboratories.

• Customer Engineering: A track record of working directly with customers to identify pain points and implement technical solutions that drive value.

• Hardware Fundamentals: Familiarity with sensor integration (vision, audio, IoT), networking basics, and simple scripting for edge system maintenance.

• Data / Infrastructure: Experience with infrastructure-as-code and managing edge-to-cloud data transfers, particularly for data intensive or backend systems.

• Science / Process Development: Familiarity with and a deep curiosity for science. Mission‑aligned in identifying and tackling sources of variability in scientific processes.

Other things we like to see:

• A passion for science

• A passion for and experience with AI

• Demonstrated experience working in fast‑moving/ambiguous environments (like startups!)

The basics:

• Competitive compensation (cash + equity)

• Full benefits (low/no-cost health insurance options, HSA, 401K with matching, lunch subsidy, etc.)

• Well‑funded startup led by industry leaders: founders Anna Marie Wagner (Ginkgo Bioworks, Bain Capital) and Renee Wegrzyn (DARPA, Ginkgo Bioworks, ARPA-H).