Test Engineer

Aircapture; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Aircapture is building the next generation of Direct Air Capture machines and seeks a hands-on test engineer to advance system-level testing, performance characterization, and optimization. You will design and execute HALT/ALT programs, instrument tests, analyze data, and provide feedback to engineering teams.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to define meaningful metrics, build predictive maintenance models, and help scale testing into production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related engineering field and hands-on test experience.
• 4–8 years of professional test experience with hardware systems.
• “Ignition” or similar historian platforms knowledge is preferred.
• Strong instrumentation, data acquisition, and instrumentation installation skills.
• Ability to define meaningful performance metrics from physics-based understanding.

Responsibilities

• Conduct system-level testing of DAC systems and performance characterization.
• Plan HALT and ALT testing programs with design teams and deliver actionable feedback.
• Develop data-driven understanding of performance over time and predictive maintenance models.
• Define metrics describing system efficiency and bridge OKRs with design-team deliverables.
• Create data pipelines to move test data into dashboards for engineering decisions.
• Collaborate across teams to support development with rapid feedback loops.

Skills

Test engineering

Instrumentation & data acquisition

Python data analysis

Data-driven decision making

Thermal/Fluid/ Electrochemical physics

Leadership/mentoring (bonus)

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical/Aerospace/Chemical/Controls Engineering, Physics

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

Ignition

ibaPDA

National Instruments

Keysight

SCADA systems

Job description

At Aircapture, we're creating and scaling a circular carbon economy to solve what we believe to be the challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis. We supply commercial and industrial customers with clean CO₂ captured directly from the atmosphere, transforming a climate threat into a valuable resource.Solving a challenge of this scale takes people with different backgrounds, experiences, and ways of thinking. We value those differences and believe they make us a stronger team.

Aircapture is building the next generation of Direct Air Capture machines by iterating through the design-build-test loop to evolve from prototypes to production. You will test at every level, from component-level ALT to full system-level performance and optimization. You have done substantive test work on real systems, take pride in rigorous and reproducible results, and communicate your findings clearly to engineering peers and cross-functional collaborators. If you are a hands-on engineer who wants to do meaningful work at a groundbreaking climate technology company, we want to hear from you.

This role is onsite at our development and production facility in Berkeley, California.

Salary: $130,000-170,000 per year

What You’ll Do Here

• Conduct system-level testing of our DAC systems, including design envelope testing, performance characterization, and operational optimization
• Help define the metrics that describe system efficiency and performance, bridging the gap between high-level OKRs and design-team deliverables with a physics-based understanding of what our equipment actually does in operation
• Plan and conduct HALT and ALT testing programs in partnership with the design teams to de-risk new design concepts, including developing test objectives, designing fixtures, instrumenting the test rig, executing tests, performing analysis, and delivering clear feedback that informs the design process
• Develop a rigorous, data-driven understanding of equipment and part performance and reliability by characterizing performance degradation over time, validating or challenging design-life assumptions, and using these insights to inform predictive maintenance models and O&M schedules
• Translate test findings into actionable feedback for the design and operations teams, accelerating the feedback loops that drive the development process
• Partner across the organization to develop the data pipeline that moves test and operational data from the telemetry system into dashboards and reports that support engineering decisions

Your Skills and Abilities Include

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a closely related field. Master's degree a plus
• 4-8 years of professional experience in test engineering, systems testing, or experimental R&D, with hands-on involvement in test programs on hardware systems, including test execution, instrumentation, and analysis
• Strong instrumentation and data acquisition background, including sensor selection, signal conditioning, DAQ and SCADA systems, and historian platforms, e.g., Ignition, ibaPDA, National Instruments, Keysight, or similar (we use Ignition)
• Hands-on experience with the full test cycle: test objective development, fixture design and build, instrumentation selection and installation, data logging, analysis, and design feedback
• Deep physics-based understanding of thermal, fluid, or electrochemical systems, sufficient to define meaningful performance metrics, identify anomalies in data, and evaluate whether a system is behaving as designed
• Aptitude with Python, JMP, SQL, Excel, or equivalent for data analysis and visualization; able to work alongside data engineers to shape the pipeline and extract meaning from large operational datasets
• Experience establishing quality or reliability systems in a hardware organization, including FAT requirements, reliability test programs, failure mode analysis, and health monitoring of deployed systems
• Proficiency developing performance metrics for complex systems- not just measuring what's easy, but defining what matters and building the analysis to capture it
• A plus: leadership experience on small teams; project management experience; prior experience with Direct Air Capture, carbon capture, industrial process equipment, or other complex energy or climate hardware; experience scaling a test or quality function from early-stage through commercial production; background in reliability engineering, predictive maintenance, or asset performance management

This position requires physical activities including climbing stairs or ladders, stooping, crouching to work on equipment, operating machinery and lifting and carrying loads of 25 lbs or more.

Aircapture strives to create a safe, inclusive, equitable and diverse workplace where everyone can do their best work. We hope you feel welcome here.