Role Overview
We’re looking for a meticulous, inventive, and relentlessly precise Test Engineer to own the validation and characterization of the robotic structures enabled by our 3D Tissue Braiding platform. Your job is to understand what needs to be measured, why it matters for performance and reliability, and how to design rigorous test setups — from first principles through fully instrumented rigs.
You will build jigs, fixtures, test environments, and automated procedures to evaluate tendons, joints, soft/compliant structures, sensorized braids, multimaterial elements (springs, dampers), actuation pathways, and full robotic assemblies (e.g. end-effectors, limbs, manipulators). You’ll ensure every system we ship is reliable, consistent, and meets high load-bearing, lifetime, and performance standards.
This role is for someone with a strong intuition for measurement, test protocol design, and hands-on engineering, who loves turning ambiguous mechanical questions into crisp datasets, and who enjoys working closely with robotics engineers to guide iterations and produce customer-facing specifications.
What You’ll Do
- Design and build custom test jigs and fixtures to evaluate mechanical and electromechanical performance of braided robotic features and systems.
- Identify testing requirements, and develop and execute test protocols for strength, stiffness, fatigue, wear, hysteresis, and environmental stability.
- Create automated test setups using sensors, DAQ systems, and basic motor/actuator control.
- Analyze performance data, identify trends and failure modes, and provide clear design feedback to the Solutions team.
- Document procedures, results, and specifications rigorously for internal and customer-facing use.
- Ensure test approaches align with pre-certification requirements and relevant standards.
- Maintain a clean, well-organized testing environment and track equipment calibration and maintenance.
What You Bring
Required
- Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, or similar.
- 2+ years experience in test engineering, hardware validation, or characterization.
- Strong hands-on skills designing/building precise jigs or test setups.
- Familiarity with sensors, instrumentation, DAQ tools, and automated test systems.
- Proficiency in 3D CAD for designing fixtures and mechanisms.
- Excellent data analysis and documentation habits, understanding of statistical analysis for test & measurement environments.
- Basic understanding of robotics mechanics (loads, tendons, joints, dynamics).
Bonus Points
- Experience applying ISO/IEC standards or industrial reliability frameworks.
- Background in soft robotics, compliant mechanisms, or tendon-driven architectures.
- Knowledge of embedded sensing, force/torque sensing, or tactile characterization.
- Experience with scripting or automation (Python preferred).
- Prior work in test engineering for robotics, automation, or mechanical devices.
Personal Attributes
- Love of measurement, precision, and clarity, with a detail-oriented and documentation-driven mindset.
- Obsessed with accuracy, repeatability, and understanding edge cases.
- Creative problem solver with a talent for designing clever test setups.
- Likes to investigate and get to the root cause of a failure or any phenomenon.
- Enjoys collaborative iteration with robotics engineers and hardware teams.
- Thrives in a fast-paced, experimental R&D environment.
- Communicates data and insights clearly, without ambiguity.
Why Join?
- World-changing technology — work alongside a world-class team, and take part in fundamentally changing how robotics are built
- Founding team opportunity — shape the technical foundation and culture from day one
- Competitive salary — we value talent and offer fair compensation for your expertise
- Work on something new — solve problems that no one else is solving
- Physical impact — your designs influence tangible machines that build real, physical products
- Cross-disciplinary learning — expand your knowledge across software, engineering, and robotics in your everyday work and at professional events
- Flexible work hours — hybrid work setup possible
- Community — a supportive and design-driven culture where sharing ideas, communication and hands-on collaboration are part of the day-to-day, and failure is considered a learning opportunity
Ready?
If you love designing clever test setups, generating high-quality data, and making functional systems robust and reliable — we want to hear from you.
To apply: Send your resume, github / portfolio and a note on what excites you most about this role to [apply+sol@allonic.co]