Hardware Reliability & Test Engineering Intern

base-power; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 15,000 - 20,000; Part time

Job summary

Base Power in Austin, Texas is seeking a Hardware Reliability & Test Engineering Intern. This role involves designing test fixtures, running validation experiments, and analyzing data. This is an opportunity for students to apply their engineering skills in a practical setting.

Ideal candidates will have hands-on hardware experience, proficiency in Python, and familiarity with various bench instruments. Join us to contribute to innovative power solutions.

Qualifications

• Current junior, senior, or graduate student in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• Hands-on experience with electromechanical hardware; personal projects accepted.
• Comfort with Python for analyzing data.

Responsibilities

• Design and build test fixtures for battery modules and hardware.
• Run accelerated life tests and analyze test data.
• Support root cause and failure analysis on hardware issues.

Skills

Hands-on experience building or testing electromechanical hardware

Comfort with Python for data analysis

Familiarity with bench instruments

Attention to detail

Curious and self-directed

Education

Junior, senior, or graduate student in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Power supplies

Multimeters

DAQ systems

Job description

About Base

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

About the Role

At Base, hardware doesn't ship until we know it works; not just on paper, but under real-world use and abuse. As a Hardware Reliability & Test Engineering Intern, you'll work directly with our Reliability and Test team to design test fixtures, run validation experiments, analyze failure data, and help close the feedback loop between the lab and the design team.

What you’ll do

• Design and build test fixtures and measurement setups for electrical, mechanical, and environmental validation of battery modules, inverters, and interconnect hardware.
• Build automated test rigs, configure and troubleshoot DAQ systems.
• Run accelerated life tests, thermal cycling, and environmental stress screening in our fleet of environmental chambers.
• Analyze test data in Python using scripts to automate data ingest, anomaly detection, and pass/fail evaluation.
• Support root cause and failure analysis on hardware issues, from visual inspection and solder rework to schematic-level investigation.
• Contribute to test reports and reliability documentation that tell a clear, data-backed story.

What you'll bring

• Current junior, senior, or graduate student in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Hands‑on experience building or testing electromechanical hardware; personal projects count.
• Comfort with Python for data analysis.
• Familiarity with bench instruments: oscilloscopes, power supplies, multimeters, DAQ systems.
• Attention to detail and a high bar for documentation.
• Curious, self‑directed, and willing to dig into a problem that doesn't have an obvious answer.