Reliability, Quality, & Test Engineer

Stealth Startup; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package

Workspace setup stipend

Job summary

Stealth Startup in Palo Alto is building a qualification and reliability program for new power-source hardware turning surfaces into energy. You will define standards, oversee in-house and external testing, and ensure lab capability for customer-ready certifications.

We seek engineers with hands-on accelerated life testing, data analysis, and experience coordinating with third-party labs to support global market access. Join a small, ambitious team in a seed-stage startup environment.

Qualifications

• Seven or more years in reliability, quality, or test engineering for hardware subject to external qualification.
• Hands-on experience planning and running accelerated life and environmental testing, and interpreting results.
• Experience managing third-party laboratories and certification bodies such as TUV, UL, Intertek, or European notified bodies.
• Statistical competence including sample sizing, confidence intervals, Weibull analysis, and acceleration models.
• Test automation with Python or LabVIEW, instrument control, and structured data collection.
• BS or MS in Electrical, Mechanical, Materials Science, Physics, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Define and run accelerated life testing and qualification programs.
• Establish traceable measurement capability and IEC 60904-related lab practices.
• Specify, procure, and commission environmental and electrical test equipment.
• Automate measurements with scripted test sequences and data capture.
• Manage external laboratories and certification activities across regions (NA, EU, Asia).
• Generate data to support product specifications and customer programs.
• Write SOPs and work instructions for manufacturing partners to enable process control.
• Perform failure analysis, define remediation plans, and document root causes.

Skills

Reliability engineering

Accelerated life testing

Third-party lab management

Statistical methods

Test automation

Engineering education

Education

BS/MS in Electrical/Mechanical/Materials/Physics

Tools

LabVIEW

Python

Job description

We're a seed-stage stealth hardware startup based in the Bay Area building a new source of power for frontier applications, from robotics and connected edge devices to the built environment. Our technology turns everyday surfaces into power sources. We are a small, focused team: an exited founder, NASA engineers, and materials scientists who have spent their careers turning emerging technology into products and scaling the operations behind them. Our first products are already in customers' hands.

Who we hire

Most of what we do has not been done before. The people who do well here have built something first of its kind, solved a problem others gave up on, or have patents, publications, or shipped products they can point to. They hold a high standard for their own work and expect it from the people around them.

The role

This role builds our qualification and reliability program: test plans, in-house laboratory capability, accelerated life data, third-party certification, and a quality system that will withstand a customer audit. You will be writing the qualification standard for products that do not exist yet, and we have budget committed to external certification over the coming year that this role is responsible for spending well.

What you'll do

• Qualification program. Define and run accelerated life testing, including damp heat, thermal cycling, humidity-freeze, UV exposure, mechanical load, and drop and abuse testing, against the standards our segments require.

• Measurement infrastructure. Establish traceable low-irradiance measurement capability: solar simulator classification and spectral and spatial uniformity per the applicable IEC 60904 parts, characterization of the indoor light sources our customers use, spectral mismatch correction, and a documented

  measurement uncertainty budget at indoor illuminance levels. Our published specifications have to

  survive a customer measuring the same part on their own bench.

• Laboratory capability and test automation. Specify, procure, and commission environmental and electrical test equipment, replacing a project-by-project approach with a planned capability. Automate the measurements: instrument control, scripted test sequences, and structured data capture rather than manual logging.
• Third-party certification. Manage external laboratories and certification bodies through submission, and sequence certifications by segment and geography. European market access is important, so CE marking and the applicable EN standards and EU directives are part of the scope alongside the North American and Asian pathways our customers require.
• Specification validation. Generate the data required to qualify for customer programs and identify where a proposed specification is not supportable.
• Quality system and vendor SOPs. Incoming inspection, non-conformance handling, corrective action, and traceability, scaled for our stage while meeting OEM audit requirements. Write the standard operating procedures and work instructions our manufacturing and component vendors build to, so that process control is documented instead of assumed.
• Failure analysis and remediation. Determine root cause for field and test failures, characterize degradation modes, and write the remediation plan: what changes, who owns it, how it is verified, and what happens to units already in the field or at a customer.
• Reliability data management. Maintain the environmental and lifetime data set in a form product and commercial can use directly.

What you'll bring

• Seven or more years in reliability, quality, or test engineering for a hardware product subject to external qualification.
• Hands-on experience planning and running accelerated life and environmental testing, and interpreting the results.
• Experience managing third-party laboratories and certification bodies such as TUV, UL, Intertek, or a European notified body, through a complete submission.
• Statistical competence, including sample sizing, confidence intervals, Weibull analysis, and acceleration models.
• Test automation with Python or LabVIEW, instrument control, and structured data collection.
• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related field.

Nice to have

• Working knowledge of a relevant standards family,such as IEC 61215 or IEC 63163 for photovoltaics, or IEC 60068, EN, JEDEC, or MIL-STD equivalents from another hardware domain.
• Quality system experiencesuch as ISO 9001, PPAP and APQP, or 8D, including supporting customer audits, authoring SOPs and work instructions for manufacturing partners, and writing corrective action and remediation plans.
• Battery and energy storage safety qualification (UN 38.3, IEC 62133).
• CE marking and EU regulatory pathways: RoHS, REACH, the EU Battery Regulation, and the applicable directives.
• Building product certification pathways (IEC 61730, UL 61730, or regional equivalents).
• International OEM quality expectations and regional regulatory requirements.
• Materials degradation: encapsulation, barrier films, and moisture ingress.
• Establishing a quality function at an early-stage company, and contract manufacturer oversight.
• Equity package
• Workspace setup stipend

Location and travel

This role is in-office in Palo Alto 4-5 days per week, with less than 10% travel to test laboratories, certification bodies, and manufacturing partners.

Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications, we still encourage you to apply, as we are growing fast and hire opportunistically.

We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We believe that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Selection for employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.