Sr. Electrical Test Engineer

About the role

An innovative defense technology company is looking to bring on a Senior Electrical Test Engineer. As the organization scales rapidly, the electrical team is seeking a Senior Electrical Test Engineer who can work semi-autonomously and bring deep, hands-on technical strength to hardware validation and test automation. This role sits within the Electrical Test team, a small, versatile group covering electrical validation, test automation, and some in-house mechanical work for test fixtures. This position is backfilling a Senior team member and is being hired at the Senior to Staff level. The Senior Electrical Test Engineer leads development and execution of electrical test strategies across vehicle and subsystem programs, architecting test plans, developing automated test equipment, and partnering cross-functionally to ensure electrical designs are validated before release and deployment. The ideal candidate combines strong, engineering-level hardware debug skills with the ability to write their own test automation code (primarily Python), and has spent time in an R&D environment building and owning test systems from scratch rather than inheriting systems provided by a customer. Candidates should be a genuine standout in one of two areas: board-level PCBA validation paired with Python automation, OR high-power/power systems validation. Whichever their North Star, they pair it with a holistic, systems-level mindset, thinking about the whole device rather than a narrow discipline. The organization can supplement the rest, but the candidate must bring one true area of mastery. This is a permanent, fully onsite position based out of Austin, TX.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own comprehensive test plans aligned with the engineering design process (requirements, design, verification, validation, release)
• Lead electrical verification at board, subsystem, and system levels; design and execute functional, environmental, regression, reliability, and stress testing
• Drive root cause analysis for electrical failures and implement corrective validation strategies
• Design, build, and deploy automated test equipment for PCBAs, harnesses, power systems, and integrated assemblies, using flexible, interchangeable bench-top equipment rather than single-purpose production test machines
• Develop automated test scripts and frameworks, primarily in Python
• Specify and integrate lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, DAQs, power supplies, environmental chambers)
• Partner with electrical, mechanical, firmware, systems, and manufacturing engineers to ensure designs are testable and validated early; participate in design reviews
• Partner with manufacturing/contract manufacturing partners to validate hardware after build and transition engineering tests into production test processes
• Support field diagnostics, including building diagnostic kits used by technicians in the field
• Mentor junior engineers and technicians in structured test development and debugging

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field (Master's preferred)
• 5-10+ years of experience in electrical test engineering or hardware validation; additional experience considered for Staff-level
• Engineering-level board debug ability, reading schematics/datasheets and independently root-causing hardware failures
• Ability to write test automation software, primarily Python
• Experience designing and building flexible bench-top automated test setups, not single-purpose production
• R&D background supporting high-mix hardware validation, ideally having built and owned test systems personally
• Strong troubleshooting skills across analog, digital, power, and mixed-signal systems

Qualifications

• Experience in automotive (especially EV), marine, robotics, defense, or ruggedized platforms
• High-voltage/high-power systems experience (100V+ DC), an acceptable alternate strength path to