About Forterra

At Forterra, we are unleashing autonomy at scale to transform the battlefield. Our mission is to build the foundational platforms that enable an intelligent ecosystem to coordinate, adapt, and execute with speed and precision even in the uncertainty and disruption of modern conflict. In an era marked by rapid technological change and evolving threats, we design for flexibility, survivability, and operational dominance.

Forterra delivers weapons, sensors, and battlefield effects through integrated autonomous networks reaching operational areas faster, safer, and without placing human lives at risk. Our systems operate with distributed control, dynamic routing, and real-time responsiveness, enabling sustained advantage across complex mission environments.

About the role

Forterra is seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer with strong experience in hardware validation, automated test systems, and test fixture development to support the design, bring-up, and production validation of electronic systems used in autonomous vehicle platforms. This role combines electrical design expertise with ownership of hardware test infrastructure, including automated test development, test fixture design, and validation frameworks used throughout the product lifecycle. The engineer will work closely with hardware, firmware, and manufacturing teams to ensure that systems are robustly validated, testable at scale, and production-ready. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable debugging hardware in the lab, designing test hardware, building automated validation systems, and implementing disciplined ECAD practices that support scalable and repeatable testing.

What you'll do

Hardware Test & Automation:

• Design and implement hardware validation strategies for boards and subsystems used in autonomous vehicle platforms.
• Develop automated hardware test systems for engineering validation, regression testing, and manufacturing screening.
• Design and build custom test fixtures, harnesses, and interface boards to support board-level and subsystem testing.
• Develop automated test scripts and frameworks to exercise hardware interfaces such as Ethernet, CAN, SPI, I2C, and power systems.
• Collaborate with firmware and software teams to integrate automated test infrastructure into development and CI workflows.
• Define test plans, test coverage, and validation methodologies across prototype, EVT/DVT, and production phases.
• Implement data collection and analysis frameworks to monitor performance, reliability, and regression trends.
•  Support manufacturing teams with production test strategies and bring-up procedures.

 Electrical Design & Debug:

• Design and develop digital and analog circuits for embedded systems, networking hardware, and power subsystems.
• Perform schematic capture and collaborate with PCB layout engineers during board implementation.
• Lead board bring-up and hardware debugging using lab instrumentation including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and power analyzers.
• Perform root cause analysis of hardware issues discovered during validation and field testing.
• Support prototype builds and drive hardware validation through the development of lifecycle.
• Generate clear technical documentation, including schematics, test plans, validation reports, and debugging notes.
• Test Hardware & Fixture Development Design test interface boards, harnesses, and hardware fixtures to enable efficient validation and production testing.
• Develop bed-of-nails fixtures, debug adapters, and instrumentation interfaces where required.
• Collaborate with mechanical and manufacturing teams to ensure test fixtures are robust, repeatable, and scalable.
• Ensure test infrastructure supports high coverage, repeatability, and efficient troubleshooting.
• ECAD & Design Infrastructure Develop, maintain, and release high-quality schematics and PCB designs using Altium Designer (or equivalent).
• Review PCB designs for signal integrity, power integrity, grounding, and testability (DFT).
• Contribute to design-for-test (DFT) practices that improve validation and production screening.
• Collaborate with manufacturing and PLM teams to ensure accurate design releases.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong experience in hardware validation and automated test development.
• Hands-on experience designing test fixtures, hardware test adapters, or validation systems.
• Deep familiarity with hardware debugging and lab instrumentation.
• Strong understanding of design-for-test and validation methodologies.
• Ability to work across hardware, firmware, and manufacturing teams to build scalable test infrastructure.
• Basic Knowledge of networking configurations and protocols 
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug complex mixed hardware/software issues.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing automated hardware test systems using Python, LabVIEW, or similar frameworks.
• Experience designing test fixtures, bed-of-nails systems, or hardware interface boards.
• Experience with automotive, defense, or high-reliability hardware systems.
• Familiarity with networking hardware, embedded systems, or robotics platforms.
• Exposure to signal integrity or power integrity analysis. Familiarity with ISO 26262, MIL-STD, or other reliability standards.

US Salary Range
 $125,000.00-$165,000.00

Location

On-Site in Clarksburg, MD

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.  
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption. 
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires. 
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

CLEARANCE ELIGIBILITY - This position may require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. For more information about U.S. Security Clearances: click here.   

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in all personnel practices. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain.  

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any factor, including veteran and disability status, and criminal history, in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws.

Forterra is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.

To see Forterra’s candidate data privacy policy, please visit Forterra Legal | Job Applicant Privacy Notice.