Robotics Hardware Test Engineer - Build & Validate Rigs

TAR; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

TAR is building the world’s first off-grid data-center power plant, powered by renewables. We seek a Hardware Test Engineer for our San Francisco robotics facility. You will stand up the test function from zero, design fixtures, and own reliability data, with travel to our West Texas site for field testing.

Lead test plans from subsystem to production, automate execution, and build end-to-end tests that confirm readiness for deployment in a fast-paced, ownership-driven environment.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in hardware test, validation, or reliability engineering on robotic, vehicle, or electromechanical systems.
• Experience designing and building test rigs and fixtures with CAD & GD&T fluency.
• Instrumentation and DAQ depth: load cells, strain gauges, thermocouples, accelerometers, encoders.
• Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals and root cause methods (8D, 5-Why, teardown).
• Accelerated life and durability testing experience.
• Python or equivalent scripting for test automation and data analysis.
• Judgment to know when to build the real thing with high ownership and speed.

Responsibilities

• Design and build the test harnesses, rigs, and fixtures required to test robotic systems from the subsystem level through a production representative design.
• Turn requirements and design constraints into executable test plans covering functional, durability, accelerated life, and environmental testing, with SOPs that let others run tests in parallel without you.
• Instrument machines and rigs with load cells, strain gauges, thermocouples, accelerometers, and encoders, and own the DAQ and data pipeline behind them.
• Run environmental testing to characterize the limits of the design: high temperature, thermal cycling, dust and particulate ingress, vibration, shock, humidity, and UV exposure.
• Own root cause end to end: reproduce the failure, isolate it, and work with the design team to implement and validate the fix.
• Build reliability models from test and field data, including life estimates, failure distributions, and the sample sizes needed to trust them.
• Automate test execution, reporting, and dashboards so the team knows what is actually breaking and how often.
• Qualify machines for field deployment and work cross-functionally to design end-of-line acceptance tests as the fleet grows.

Skills

Hardware testing

Robotics testing

DAQ instrumentation

Python scripting

Mechanical engineering

Root cause analysis

Test automation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

CAD

GD&T

Job description

TAR is building the world’s first off-grid data-center power plant, powered by renewables. We seek a Hardware Test Engineer for our San Francisco robotics facility. You will stand up the test function from zero, design fixtures, and own reliability data, with travel to our West Texas site for field testing.

Lead test plans from subsystem to production, automate execution, and build end-to-end tests that confirm readiness for deployment in a fast-paced, ownership-driven environment.