About the role
A perception model is only as good as the data the hardware delivers. The Hardware team designs how every sensor on the platform is mounted, powered, cooled, synchronised and calibrated: the 128-beam lidar units, radar, cameras, IMU and GNSS, and the harnesses and enclosures that connect them to the compute.
Vibration shifts extrinsics, a drooping supply rail adds noise and a clock offset of a few milliseconds turns a clean point cloud into a smear at speed. You will work with Perception and Embedded engineers to define what each sensor needs, then build and test it on the fleet. Designs are documented so the same sensor kit can be fitted to other Clexerl platforms, and the lessons go back into the next revision.
The team is small and hands-on. You will spend time in the lab and on the vehicles as well as in CAD and schematics.
What you’ll do
- Design sensor mounts, brackets and enclosures that hold calibration through vibration, thermal cycling and weather, and verify them with testing.
- Specify and build power distribution, harnesses and connectors with attention to voltage drop, EMI, grounding and serviceability.
- Implement hardware time synchronisation using PPS, PTP or trigger lines, and measure end-to-end timestamp error across sensors.
- Develop calibration procedures and fixtures for intrinsics and extrinsics that technicians can run repeatably in the garage.
- Investigate field failures such as connector fatigue, thermal throttling and ingress, and drive design changes into the next build.
- Maintain bills of materials, change control and test records for each vehicle build.
What you’ll bring
- Experience integrating electromechanical or sensor systems into vehicles, robots or similar equipment, from concept to field use.
- Competence in CAD for mechanical design and in reading and reviewing schematics and wiring diagrams.
- Working knowledge of power electronics basics, signal integrity, EMC practices and automotive connector and harness standards.
- Familiarity with lidar, radar or camera operating principles and the ways mounting and timing affect data quality.
- Comfort with lab tools such as oscilloscopes, thermal cameras and data loggers, and with writing small scripts to process measurements.
- A practical habit of testing a design on the real vehicle before declaring it done.
Nice to have
- Experience with target-based and targetless extrinsic calibration between lidar, camera and radar.
- Knowledge of IP-rating, thermal modelling and lens or window contamination mitigation.
- Experience with automotive-grade validation, such as vibration profiles and environmental chamber testing.
- Background in FPGA-based sensor triggering or timestamping.
Work you might take on
- 01
Redesign the roof lidar mount to reduce resonance at engine and road frequencies and show extrinsic stability over a thousand miles.
- 02
Build a PTP-based time sync chain across lidar, cameras and IMU and verify sub-millisecond agreement with a hardware reference.
- 03
Create a repeatable garage calibration fixture and procedure that cuts per-vehicle calibration time and operator variance.
- 04
Trace intermittent camera dropouts to a harness fault, fix the connector design and add an inline power monitor to catch recurrence.
Compensation
$180K – $290K
The US base salary range for this role. Every offer also includes equity in Clexerl and, when it spins out, in the venture you help build. We tell you the reasoning behind your number.
Benefits
Health, fully covered
Medical, dental and vision for you and your dependants, premiums paid in full.
Two kinds of equity
Equity in Clexerl, plus a stake in the venture you help build when it spins out.
22 weeks parental leave
Fully paid, for every parent, however your family arrives.
Rest that sticks
Flexible time off with a four-week minimum we actually check on, plus a company-wide week in December.
Learning and compute
A yearly budget for courses, conferences and books, and compute credits for side projects.
401(k) with a 4% match
Matched from your first paycheque and vested immediately.
How we hire
Apply 5 minutes
Send links to what you have built and a few lines on why this role. No cover letter needed.
Intro call 30 minutes
A conversation with the hiring manager about the work, the team and what you want next.
Work sample 2–4 hours
A paid take-home or a pairing session on a real-shaped problem. You pick the format.
Studio day One day
Meet the team, go deep on your work and ours. Remote or in person.
Offer Within 5 days
A written offer with the full range, the equity and the reasoning behind both.
Opens an email with a short template. Links beat résumés.