Senior Hardware Reliability Engineer

Atoms; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 182,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

401(k)

Equity

Paid Holidays

Team lunch

Job summary

Atoms is seeking a Senior Hardware Reliability Engineer to own vehicle-level reliability testing and hardware issue resolution for our on-road program. This hands-on role spans garage, road, and test sites to ensure durability and field reliability.

You will reproduce failures, collect logs, define root cause, and drive corrective actions across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software teams while coordinating with external labs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required or equivalent hands-on experience.
• 7+ years in vehicle test, validation, durability, field quality, or reliability engineering on prototypes or production vehicles.
• Experience running a test or durability fleet with duty cycles and test records.
• Ownership of field or test failures from report to verification across teams.

Responsibilities

• Define duty cycles, routes, mileage targets for test fleet.
• Plan and execute durability and environmental testing on road and in labs.
• Reproduce failures, collect logs and parts, determine root cause.
• Define containment actions and drive corrective actions with engineering teams.
• Manage return path for failed hardware from vehicle to bench with documentation.
• Propose design-change recommendations with supporting evidence.
• Report test fleet results by vehicle revision and open issues status.

Skills

Vehicle test

Durability testing

Root cause analysis

CAN diagnostics

8D problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, or Automotive Engineering

Tools

None

Job description

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.

Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that.

Atoms builds Physical AI— real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.

This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.

We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.

About the role

We are seeking a Senior Hardware Reliability Engineer to own vehicle-level reliability testing and hardware issue resolution for our on-road program. In this role, you will run a dedicated test fleet, plan and execute the durability and environmental testing behind it, and own the highest-priority vehicle hardware issues from first report through root cause, corrective action, and verification. This is a hands-on role based in the garage, on the road, and at test sites and labs.

What you’ll do

• Run a dedicated test fleet: define duty cycles, routes, and mileage and hour targets, schedule vehicles and drivers with the operations team, and track exposure by vehicle and hardware revision.
• Plan and execute durability and environmental testing, on the road and at external test labs, to reproduce field conditions.
• Own the highest-priority vehicle hardware issues: reproduce the failure, collect logs and returned parts, confirm the failure mode, and establish root cause.
• Define containment actions, drive corrective actions with mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software engineering, and verify effectiveness on test vehicles and in the fleet before closure.
• Manage the return path for failed hardware from vehicle to bench, including tagging, teardown, functional confirmation, and documentation.
• Prioritize test and field findings into design change recommendations with supporting evidence, and represent them in design reviews.
• Report test fleet results on a fixed cadence: exposure by vehicle and hardware revision, failures by subsystem normalized to exposure, and status of open issues.

What we’re looking for

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, or Automotive Engineering, or a related field. Equivalent hands-on experience will be considered in place of the degree.
• 7+ years in vehicle test, validation, durability, field quality, or reliability engineering on prototype, pre-production, or production vehicles in automotive, EV, autonomous vehicle, or commercial vehicle programs.
• Experience running a test or durability fleet, including duty cycle definition, mileage accumulation planning, driver coordination, and configuration and test record control.
• Demonstrated ownership of field or test failures from first report through reproduction, root cause, containment, corrective action, and verification, across multiple engineering teams.
• Hands-on failure analysis of returned vehicle hardware, including teardown, functional confirmation on a vehicle or buck, and coordination of ingress, thermal, and vibration testing with labs.
• Working knowledge of structured problem solving: 8D, 5 Whys, fishbone, and FMEA.
• Vehicle diagnostics experience: CAN and system log capture, DTC interpretation, and reading wiring diagrams, harness drawings, and BOMs.
• Experience working with technicians, test drivers, and operations teams, and with suppliers on failure confirmation and corrective action.
• Ability to work onsite five days a week in San Francisco, with regular time in the garage and on the road, and travel to test sites and external labs. Valid driver's license with a clean driving record.

At Atoms, you’ll work on one of the defining challenges of our time—bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what’s known and building what doesn’t yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it’s grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team—so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our San Franciscooffice. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $182,000 - 231,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, and Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account / Health Savings Account Options
• 401(k)
• Equity
• Sick Time, Unlimited Flexible Time Off, and Paid Holidays
• Team lunch in our SoMa office every Tuesday and Thursday

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.

Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Atoms’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

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An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.