About Atomic Machines
Atomic Machines is ushering in a new era of micromanufacturing with its Matter Compiler™ technology. This full-stack technology enables new classes of micromachines to be designed and built by offering manufacturing processes and a materials library that is inaccessible to semiconductor manufacturing methods. It promises to unlock MEMS manufacturing for the many device classes frustrated by semiconductor methods and to open up entirely new product classes. The Matter Compiler™ technology fully realizes the digital manufacturing dream: bits and raw materials go in, and complete, functional micromachines come out. The Atomic Machines team has also created an exciting first device – one that was only made possible by the existence of the Matter CompilerTM technology – that we will be unveiling to the world soon.
Our offices are in Emeryville and Santa Clara, California.
About The Role:
We are seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer, Test to define and own how Atomic Machines validates entirely new classes of devices. At Atomic Machines, we are building a novel robotic manufacturing platform—the Matter Compiler™—from the ground up. This enables us to explore entirely new materials and processes, making possible a class of devices that cannot be fabricated in conventional fab environments. From a test perspective, this means there is often no existing playbook. You will define test strategies for devices with unknown failure modes, ambiguous requirements, and tight coupling to manufacturing constraints. Success requires building first-principles models, identifying error sources, and making tradeoffs between accuracy, throughput, cost, and scalability. You will be expected to lead the definition of test strategy for new devices, not just execute on predefined test plans.
As part of the test group, you will work on complex multidisciplinary problems. You will have the opportunity to define novel tests from initial specifications through initial design, design and build custom hardware, and integrate it into a complete system. Your test development can include mechanical fixturing, circuit board design, firmware development, integration of existing equipment, and owning the full data lifecycle—defining how data is collected, validated, stored, and interpreted to inform product performance, failure analysis, and manufacturing decisions. You will work closely with colleagues from Device Design, Go-To-Market, and Production to specify, implement, and validate tests.
In addition to a strong electrical engineering background, the ideal candidate will bring strong first principles thinking, creativity, and a generalist mindset. There are typically multiple approaches to developing any test, and navigating design/fabrication/results tradeoffs is where someone with a first principles approach will excel.
What You'll Do
- Own end-to-end test development: define requirements, architect solutions, build systems, and deploy them into production
- Design test strategies from first principles for devices without existing validation frameworks
- Develop error budgets and measurement approaches for precision sensing and device characterization
- Make system-level tradeoffs between accuracy, throughput, cost, and scalability
- Architect and build custom instrumentation, including PCB design, firmware, and mechanical fixtures
- Document test systems, interfaces, and operating procedures to enable reliable handoff to production, reproducibility of results, and long-term maintainability
- Integrate test systems into automated production environments, ensuring robustness and scalability
- Partner with Device, Manufacturing, and Product teams to translate ambiguous requirements into measurable specifications and challenge assumptions
- Drive improvements in test reliability, data quality, and production throughput
What You'll Need
- 5+ years of experience in circuit design, instrumentation development, or test engineering
- Demonstrated experience in full board development from initial circuit concepts through PCB layout, including defining specifications, validating functionality at the schematic level, and executing PCB layout
- Designing with Altium 365
- Deep understanding of analog and mixed-signal circuit design
- Experience implementing analog system control using microcontrollers
- Familiarity with hardware-level communication protocols
- Ability to develop microcontroller code in C
- Strong documentation skills for clear hardware handoff to system-integration teams
- Proficiency with standard electronic test equipment
- Experience developing instrumentation, including constructing and managing error budgets
- Solid hands-on lab skills, including soldering, hardware build/test, and iterative refinement
- A first-principles mindset — you question assumptions, reframe problems from the ground up, and approach challenges with a foundational understanding rather than relying solely on precedent
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Physics. A PhD in a hard science or engineering discipline is strongly preferred
- Experience developing test plans from ambiguous requirements, including defining specifications, measurement approaches, error sources, and success criteria
- Demonstrated ability to reason about and make engineering tradeoffs (e.g., accuracy vs speed, noise vs architecture, modularity vs robustness)
Bonus Points For
- High current (500A+) or high voltage (1kV+) systems experience
- Experience developing with the STM32 microcontroller platform
- Experience with reliability or environmental test systems
When referencing the compensation band below, please note that it may vary based on a candidate’s experience and level. This role is not tied to a single level and may span earlier-in-career through senior-level candidates. Final leveling will be determined during the interview process. We are open to strong earlier-career candidates who are excited to grow into broader technical leadership or architectural responsibility over time.