Specter · San Francisco
Software EngineeringEngineeringFullTimeposted 5mo ago
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
You’re responsible for catching defects that span our entire product lifecycle hardware-in-the-loop testers for engineering, qualification rigs, and production-floor stations. At Specter, unified testing automation infrastructure underpins our ability to guarantee reliability while we design and ship hardware at breakneck speeds—this is not a service to a specific team, rather a foundational piece of what makes a hardware company successful. For every new design you’re engaged from the start—sitting with hardware and software engineers to drive testability into the design itself and define what needs to be tested, when, why, and how. From then on, you’re accountable for defects that evade detection—you own the design’s qualification, its testability, and production testing to prove each and every unit works. Wherever a failure surfaces, you’re expected to be responsive and own the debug: mechanical, electrical, and software, until you find the root cause and feedback the findings into catching them next time.
Responsibilities:
Test fixture and software development — Design and build test fixtures and write the software that drives them. Python for orchestration and high-level logic, Rust for low-level hardware communication and performance-critical paths.
Qualification and reliability testing — Build rigs that demonstrate designs can survive years of environmental stress while maintaining performance. Ensure design changes are qualified before they reach the production line.
Test requirements and design for testability — Engage early in the design process with HW, FW, and ME teams to drive testability requirements into the design and define what gets tested, at what stage, and to what pass/fail criteria. Translate engineering intent into executable test specifications that cover qualification, production, and hardware-in-theloop scenarios.
Cross-domain debugging — When units fail in unexpected ways, dig across mechanical, electrical, and software boundaries to find root cause. Understand schematics, probe test points, and read firmware logs.
Failure analysis — In the inevitable cases where units fail in the field, interrogate root causes and integrate the lessons into future testing to avoid repeating these mistakes
Qualifications:
Strong Python — You’ve built test frameworks, automation systems, or production tooling in Python. You write structured, maintainable code, not one-off scripts.
Rust and/or C — You can write low-level code that interfaces directly with hardware— serial protocols, custom test equipment, or embedded targets. •Broad electronics knowledge — You can read schematics, identify test points, understand signal integrity basics, and probe a board to debug a failure. You don’t need to design the circuit, but you need to understand it.
Mechanical intuition — You can think about fixtures, enclosures, thermals, and how a unit physically sits in a test nest. You can spec a fixture and work with a vendor to get it built.
Project management and timeline ownership — You manage your own deliverables. You communicate status, flag risks early, and deliver on schedule without being chased.
Manufacturing floor experience — You’ve worked in or closely with a production environment. You understand the difference between something that works on your bench and something that works at rate on the floor.