Test Engineering Lead - specter

Company Background

Specter's mission is to help automate the physical world.

Today, we build video sensors with state-of-the-art AI agents that answer any question, anywhere in their environments. Our systems can automatically detect and reason about any physical activity captured on camera, from security incidents (e.g. perimeter intrusion, theft, LPR), to safety monitoring (e.g.

PPE detection, injured people), to operational efficiency (e.g. material tracking, congestion monitoring). We offer both long range wireless (1km range) and wired sensor variants to suit any deployment.

Our co-founders Xerxes and Philip are passionate about empowering our partners in the fast approaching world of physical AI and robotics. We are a small, fast growing team who hail from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces.



The Role



We’re hiring a Director of Test Engineering to own the full hardware validation lifecycle at Specter, from

requirements

through production and 10-year field life. This role starts hands-on. In the near term, you will personally design test plans, set up equipment, run tests, and build degradation models yourself. You are the program. As the company scales, you’ll define the org structure, make the first hires, and grow a team around the foundation you built.

If you’re a senior IC who’s ready to lead or a manager who still loves getting your hands dirty this is

the role

. You will be the technical owner coordinating across electrical, mechanical, firmware, manufacturing, and operations, and the person who decides when a product is ready to ship.

Responsibilities

HANDS-ON VALIDATION EXECUTION (NEAR-TERM)

• Personally design and execute thermal, mechanical, environmental, ingress, and reliability tests across our sensor and compute hardware portfolio.
• Build degradation models and define accelerated life test plans targeting a 10-year outdoor service life for ruggedized, field-deployed products.
• Perform hardware bring-up, characterization, and stress testing to identify system limits.
• Drive failure analysis and root cause investigations across hardware, firmware, and system-level failures.
• Analyze test results and translate findings into actionable design feedback for EE, ME, and firmware teams.

SYSTEM-LEVEL TEST STRATEGY & LIFECYCLE OWNERSHIP

• Own the hardware

requirements

→ test → design change feedback loop across all Specter products.

• Define and institutionalize a standardized validation and qualification process (DV, PV, EOL) that every product passes through.
• Establish test gates, pass/fail criteria, documentation standards, and sign-off ownership company-wide.