Test Engineer

About Subsense
Subsense is a deep-tech company developing the world’s first non-surgical, bidirectional brain-computer interface powered by plasmonic and magnetoelectric nanoparticles. Our mission is to unlock direct communication between the human brain and AI - starting with medical applications such as stroke recovery and moving toward cognitive enhancement for healthy users. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Subsense brings together leading scientists and engineers to redefine the future of human–machine interaction.

The Opportunity
We are looking for a hands-on Test Engineer to help build, validate, and improve the laboratory systems, instrumentation, and test workflows that support our breakthrough neurotechnology platform.

In this role, you will work at the intersection of hardware, software, data acquisition, and experimental science. You will develop and execute test plans, build automated and semi-automated test tools, validate hardware/software behavior, troubleshoot system issues, and help ensure that experimental platforms are reliable, repeatable, and ready to support fast-moving R&D.

You will partner closely with hardware, software, research, data science, and product teams to turn early prototypes into robust, usable test systems. This includes testing instrument control software, validating data acquisition pipelines, supporting hardware/software integration, documenting system performance, and improving confidence in experimental results through structured testing and validation.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build Python-based software to control, coordinate, monitor, and visualize signals from sophisticated laboratory hardware
• Design and build desktop user interfaces and internal tools to this end
• Develop software abstraction layers over vendor SDKs, PyVISA/SCPI, serial, USB/Ethernet, DAQ systems, analog/digital I/O, and equipment-specific APIs
• Implement experiment orchestration software that coordinates multiple instruments, manages timing, handles triggers, and supports synchronized data acquisition
• Test and validate software used to control, coordinate, monitor, and visualize signals from sophisticated laboratory hardware
• Work with hardware engineers to define and document hardware/software interface specifications
• Build reliable data acquisition and logging pipelines for raw signals, instrument state, metadata, calibration information, and experimental outputs in collaboration with data scientists/engineers
• Manage software environments, drivers, dependencies, and deployment across laboratory computers and hardware-connected systems
• Write tests, simulations, and validation tools to improve reliability, maintainability, and confidence in hardware/software behavior
• Troubleshoot issues spanning device communication, hardware integration, data acquisition, user interfaces, and experiment workflows
• Partner with hardware, research, data science, and product teams to turn early prototypes into robust, usable laboratory systems
• Help establish engineering patterns, documentation practices, and code quality standards as the team grows
  
  
  
  

What You'll Bring

• Strong Python experience, especially in scientific, hardware-adjacent, or data acquisition contexts
• Experience building software for laboratory instruments, test systems, robotics, automation, imaging systems, embedded systems, or other hardware-integrated environments
• Familiarity with instrument communication and control patterns such as PyVISA/SCPI, serial communication, vendor SDKs, DAQ APIs, analog/digital I/O, TTL triggers, or hardware synchronization
• Experience building user interfaces for technical users, ideally with PyQt(Graph), PySide, Qt, or similar desktop GUI frameworks (e.g. ScopeFoundry)
• Comfort working across the boundary between software, hardware, and data science, including debugging with incomplete documentation, ambiguous prototypes, and evolving system requirements
• Practical understanding of data acquisition, signal handling, timing, logging, metadata capture, and reproducible experiment workflows
• Ability to write maintainable, testable code and document systems clearly for both software and hardware collaborators
• Strong communication skills and ability to partner across hardware, research, data
  
  
  
  

Subsense is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

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.