Hardware Test Engineer

Salt; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Salt is seeking a Staff Engineer, Hardware System Test in Austin, TX to lead system-level testing and validation for complex hardware products. This role owns strategy, planning, and execution across mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, electronic, embedded firmware, and software interfaces to ensure reliability and compliance with quality, safety, and regulatory requirements.

You will collaborate with systems, electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, firmware, software, and product teams to define

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Electronic, Mechanical, Systems, or Computer Engineering.
• 8+ years of experience in system test, hardware validation, or multidisciplinary engineering.
• Strong ability to define and execute system-level testing strategies.
• Experience validating complex products across multiple domains (mechanical, electrical, software).
• Ability to lead technical initiatives without direct management responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead system-level test strategy for complex hardware products and subsystems.
• Develop test plans, coverage matrices, and validation methods for new and existing products.
• Define test scope from requirements, architecture, risks, and use cases.
• Oversee system integration, functional, regression, and release-readiness testing.
• Provide guidance on test methods, instrumentation, and test infrastructure.

Skills

System test leadership

Hardware validation

Cross-functional collaboration

Root-cause analysis

Test automation programming

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

HIL testing

Instrumentation

Job description

Staff Engineer - Hardware System Test (Austin, Texas)

Position Summary

We are seeking a Staff Engineer, Hardware System Test to lead system-level testing and validation for complex, integrated hardware products.

This role will own the strategy, planning, and execution of system testing across mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, electronic, embedded firmware, and software interfaces, ensuring products perform reliably and meet quality, safety, and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader with strong experience testing complex systems and the ability to bring together multiple engineering disciplines to solve challenging problems. This is a role with significant influence across engineering teams.

What You'll Do

System Test & Validation

• Lead the system-level test strategy for complex hardware products, including subsystem interactions, end-to-end functionality, reliability, performance, and compatibility.
• Develop system integration test plans, test protocols, coverage matrices, and validation methods for new and existing products.
• Define test scope based on product requirements, system architecture, risk, field performance, and intended use.
• Lead or oversee system integration, functional, regression, reliability, and release-readiness testing.
• Serve as a technical authority for system-test methods, coverage, readiness, and validation results.

Cross-Functional Engineering

• Work closely with systems, electrical/electronics, mechanical, hydraulic, firmware, software, and product engineering teams to understand system behavior and define effective test scenarios and acceptance criteria.
• Partner with software and firmware teams to validate interfaces, integration, system behavior, and defect resolution.
• Collaborate with automation engineers to identify opportunities for automated, repeatable, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing.
• Provide technical guidance to test engineers and technicians on test methods, execution, and test infrastructure.
• Lead complex troubleshooting and root-cause analysis involving hardware, firmware, software, and system-level interfaces.
• Identify test-coverage gaps and prioritize improvements to test methods, environments, fixtures, and infrastructure.
• Develop and improve system-test environments, test benches, instrumentation, simulation, and HIL capabilities where appropriate.
• Use field issues, customer feedback, operational data, and product performance to strengthen validation strategies and prevent future issues.
• Define and track system-test metrics such as coverage, execution status, defect trends, validation effectiveness, and release readiness.
• Ensure system-validation activities support applicable safety, regulatory, and certification requirements.

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Electronic, Mechanical, Systems, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in system test, hardware validation, systems integration, or a similar multidisciplinary engineering environment.
• Strong hands-on experience defining and executing system-level testing and validation strategies.
• Experience working with complex products that integrate multiple domains, such as mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, electronic, embedded firmware, and software systems.
• Ability to understand how different subsystems interact and determine how to effectively validate the complete product.
• Strong knowledge of verification and validation, test planning, coverage analysis, defect management, and root-cause analysis.
• Experience collaborating with firmware and software teams on system behavior, interfaces, integration, and troubleshooting.
• Ability to lead technical initiatives and influence decisions without direct management responsibility.
• Strong analytical, communication, documentation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary and global engineering teams.

This is an opportunity to have a high level of technical ownership over how complex hardware products are validated. If you enjoy understanding how an entire system works—not just one component—and figuring out how to prove that it works reliably, this role could be a strong fit.