Hardware Engineer - Test Development

Zoox is building a purpose-built, fully autonomous robotaxi, and every electronic control unit (ECU) on it has to be proven before it reaches a vehicle. The Autonomy Hardware Validation team in Robot Platform Verification & Validation runs the design validation (DV) and production validation (PV) testing that shows our ECUs meet their requirements across temperature, power, vibration, EMC and lifetime stress.
As a Hardware Engineer on our Test Development team, you will be the hands-on engineer who gets testing done in our Foster City labs. You will build test setups and automation, run tests, and help find the root cause of failures. You will move between projects as needs shift, including next-generation vehicle platforms, production validation for our current robotaxi, and cold-weather qualification. You will use AI tools and automation to build and run tests faster.

In this role, you will:

Build, debug and maintain test setups for vehicle ECUs, including fixtures, test carts, harnesses, fault injection racks, power supplies, electronic loads, data acquisition and thermal chambers.
Run electrical, environmental and reliability tests in our Foster City labs and at local test labs, and document the results clearly.
Write test automation and tools in Python, and use AI tools to review specifications and test procedures, synthesize results and speed up test development.
Support root cause analysis of test failures with validation, design, firmware and supplier quality engineers, and track issues to closure in Jira.
Add capacity where it’s needed most, working with validation leads to turn their validation plans into working test setups and procedures.

Qualifications:

2+ years of experience in hardware test, hardware validation or electrical engineering, and a BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related field.

Hands-on experience with lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, power supplies, electronic loads, DMMs and data acquisition systems.

Experience building or modifying test setups such as harnesses, fixtures or instrumentation, and reading schematics to debug board-level issues.

Working proficiency in Python for test automation or data analysis.

Comfortable using AI tools to review documents, synthesize information and build test tooling, and checking their output critically.

Experience with fault injection, hardware-in-the-loop or automated test equipment for electronics.

Experience with automotive validation standards such as ISO 16750, CISPR 25 or ISO 11452, including EMC or cold-weather testing.

Experience working in Jira, Polarion or another ALM tool.

Please note, this role does require an onsite presence in our Foster City, CA office 5 days per week.   We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.