Testbed Engineer

Testbed Engineer - Flight Hardware, Optics, Electronics & Software V&V

About Matter Intelligence

Matter Intelligence is building the future of vision AI: pairing a world-first sensor that sees molecular chemistry, temperature, and 3D shape with a Large World Model — the most powerful intelligence engine for the physical world. Our team has delivered technologies to Mars for NASA/JPL, co-founded infrastructure for OpenAI, designed sensors for U.S. Defense, and invented core algorithms for spectral and 3D imaging.

About the Role

Matter Intelligence is seeking a hands-on Testbed Engineer to help build, operate, and mature Matter’s engineering testbed infrastructure across optics, electronics, software, and flight-like hardware systems.

This role is for an engineer who is comfortable moving from the lab bench to the field, from cable harness checkout to software test execution, from optical payload alignment to flight operations support. You will help establish and maintain test environments used to validate Matter’s sensor platforms, avionics, compute systems, flight software, calibration pipelines, and data products.

The ideal candidate brings a aerospace-style engineering mindset: disciplined test planning, clean documentation, careful hardware handling, rigorous anomaly tracking, and strong ownership from setup through execution, reporting, and closeout. You will work closely with optical engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, flight software developers, systems engineers, scientists, and operations leads to ensure Matter’s hardware and software systems are ready for lab campaigns, field deployments, airborne testing, and spaceflight or flight-like missions.

This is a highly cross-functional role for someone who can build the testbed, run the test, debug the anomaly, document the result, and help drive the system toward verified performance.

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Key Responsibilities

Engineering Testbed Development & Operations

Support the setup, integration, operation, and maintenance of Matter’s engineering testbeds for sensor payloads, optics, electronics, embedded systems, flight software, and data systems.

Build and maintain lab test configurations, including optical benches, sensor fixtures, electronics racks, EGSE/GSE, power supplies, data acquisition systems, networked compute, and environmental monitoring equipment.

Configure and operate hardware-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, and system-level test environments.

Support testbed bring-up from early engineering prototypes through flight-like and field-ready configurations.

Maintain testbed configuration control, including hardware versions, software loads, cabling, ICDs, calibration states, and test readiness status.

Help define lab processes for safe and repeatable operation of sensitive optical, electrical, mechanical, and flight-like hardware.

Assembly, Integration & Test

Support assembly, integration, and test of optical sensor payloads, avionics, embedded compute, power systems, cabling, and mechanical interfaces.

Perform payload checkout, functional testing, interface verification, and acceptance-style testing for lab, ground, airborne, and field systems.

Support integration of imaging payloads with UAS, ground vehicles, lab fixtures, and other test platforms.

Execute test procedures for radiometric, geometric, spectral, thermal, electrical, and system-level performance verification.

Support contamination control, ESD-safe handling, connector mating, torque procedures, harness routing, and flight-hardware handling practices.

Assist with pre-test, pre-flight, and post-test inspections, configuration reviews, and readiness reviews.

Optics, Sensors & Calibration

Support calibration and characterization of Matter’s imaging systems, including spectral, radiometric, geometric, thermal, and 3D sensing performance.

Assist with optical alignment, focus checks, boresight verification, target setup, illumination control, and calibration artifact handling.

Operate calibration equipment, optical targets, integrating spheres, lamps, reference panels, environmental sensors, and supporting instrumentation.

Collect, organize, and validate calibration datasets used by engineering, science, and software teams.

Document calibration configurations, test conditions, procedures, results, and deviations in a traceable and audit-ready manner.

Electrical Integration & Troubleshooting

Support electrical integration across sensors, avionics, compute elements, power systems, GPS/INS, timing systems, telemetry, and ground support equipment.

Perform cable harnessing, connector mating, pinout verification, continuity checks, signal validation, and power distribution checkout.

Read and interpret schematics, wiring diagrams, connector pinouts, interface control documents, and electrical test procedures.

Use oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, power supplies, electronic loads, and data acquisition equipment to debug system issues.

Troubleshoot electrical, firmware, software, timing, synchronization, and interface anomalies across integrated hardware systems.

Support root-cause analysis, corrective action, and retest activities.

Software Test, V&V & Data Systems

Support software verification and validation for embedded software, flight software, test scripts, data acquisition systems, and processing pipelines.

Execute software and system-level test procedures, including regression testing, interface testing, fault testing, performance testing, and end-to-end data flow verification.

Help define test scope, test cases, pass/fail criteria, test matrices, and verification evidence.

Support defect tracking, anomaly reporting, log review, root-cause investigation, and verification closeout.

Work with software engineers to reproduce issues, collect logs, validate fixes, and document results.

Support test automation, scripting, data organization, and repeatable test execution where appropriate.

Field, Flight & Mission Operations Support

Support flight readiness activities, including payload checkout, mission planning, pre-flight configuration, ground station setup, and post-flight data handling.

Participate in field campaigns involving ground-based platforms, airborne payloads, or remote test sites.

Support day-of-test and day-of-flight operations, including system health checks, payload monitoring, data capture, anomaly response, and post-run reporting.

Help ensure collected data is complete, properly tagged, backed up, and delivered to science, engineering, or customer teams.

Contribute to operational procedures, runbooks, checklists, lessons learned, and post-test reports.

Documentation, Configuration & Review Support

Write, maintain, and execute test procedures, integration procedures, verification plans, test reports, discrepancy reports, and operations checklists.

Support design reviews, test readiness reviews, pre-ship reviews, flight readiness reviews, and anomaly review boards.

Maintain clear records of hardware configuration, software versions, calibration status, test setup, test execution, results, and open issues.

Contribute to engineering rigor consistent with NASA/JPL, DoD, aerospace, or equivalent high-reliability development environments.

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Qualifications

Required

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Optical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline.

3+ years of hands-on experience with engineering testbeds, lab systems, flight-like hardware, sensor payloads, robotics, aerospace systems, UAS, satellites, or complex electromechanical systems.

Experience setting up and executing hardware tests in a lab, field, or integrated system environment.

Familiarity with optical, imaging, hyperspectral, multispectral, thermal, 3D sensing, or other advanced EO sensor systems.