Senior Test Engineering Manager
Amperesand · San Francisco, CA
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Travel
- 10%
- Degree
- Preferred
- Industry
- Industrial
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A management manufacturing role at Amperesand (industrial) in San Francisco, CA. Lead, mentor, and grow a team of test engineers responsible for manufacturing test and product validation of high-voltage power electronics products.
- They ask for
- degree preferred
- Tools it names
- Root cause, Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ), Automation, Capacity planning, Tooling
- Day to day
- about 10% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of November 2, 2026
Manufacturing Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $111k–$173k.
Median of the low and high ends of 165 live postings that list pay, out of 436 manufacturing engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 435 other live manufacturing postings in California.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Not stated
Typical $109k–$159k, from 144 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Tooling 50%
- New product launch 44%
- ✓ Root cause 37%
- ✓ Automation 35%
- Machining 27%
- CATIA / NX 26%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for Capacity planning, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at Amperesand
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
- How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
- The posting says about 10% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Amperesand in San Francisco
1 other open role at this site.
- Hardware Reliability Engineer · Reliability
Full description from AmperesandAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
About the Role
At Amperesand, the Test Engineering leader owns the manufacturing test and product validation of our Solid State Transformer (SST). You will lead a team of technical experts who design, build, validate, and deploy the test systems that ensure our high-voltage power electronics hardware and firmware work flawlessly across prototype, pre-production, and volume production stages. You own the test system uptime, timely delivery, and the operational health of the test lab. You will partner closely with the program management team and cross-functional teams across EE design, ME design, and firmware to bring rigor, speed, and reliability to everything we ship.
What You'll Do
- ◆Lead, mentor, and grow a team of test engineers responsible for manufacturing test and product validation of high-voltage power electronics products.
- ◆Provide technical guidance and set direction on test architecture, methodology, and execution while empowering engineers to own their domains.
- ◆Own the end-to-end strategy and execution for manufacturing test and product validation, including test coverage, accuracy, cycle time, cost, and scalability for volume production.
- ◆Oversee the design, build, validation, and deployment of test systems for high-voltage, high-current power electronics, ensuring systems are delivered on time and meet performance targets.
- ◆Ensure high test system uptime across prototype labs, pre-production, and manufacturing environments. Design a structure to drive rapid response and root-cause resolution when testers go down and establish preventive maintenance and reliability practices.
- ◆Own the test lab - its layout, equipment, calibration cadence, safety standards, capacity planning, and day-to-day operations.
- ◆Drive the definition of manufacturing test specifications for volume production, partnering with operations, design, quality, and reliability teams.
- ◆Partner with the program management team to plan resources and align on milestones, dependencies, and deliverables across the broader engineering organization.
- ◆Collaborate closely with EE design, ME design, and firmware teams to influence DFT, investigate failures, and drive product improvements from first principles.
- ◆Drive continuous improvement of test efficiency, coverage, and automation — championing investments in tooling and automated test infrastructure that scale with volume.
- ◆Establish frameworks for test
requirements
decomposition, acceptance criteria, and program execution that scale with the company.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Company Overview
Amperesand is reinventing how the world powers its most critical systems.
We are facing a once-in-a-generation opportunity for infrastructure disruption. Electricity demand is skyrocketing, driven by AI factories, electric vehicles, and modern industrial growth. Energy supply is shifting to incorporate a more diverse mix of resources – including solar, gas, and batteries – at a massive scale.
And yet the power infrastructure behind our latest mega-projects hasn’t meaningfully changed in nearly 100 years. Supply chains for today’s infrastructure equipment can’t match the pace and sophistication of critical energy projects. Amperesand is building hardware and software that rewrites this broken power infrastructure playbook to support a new era of energy abundance.
We’ve built a new class of intelligent, software-defined power infrastructure products leveraging a decade of advanced medium voltage Solid State Transformer research that’s now ready for commercial deployment.
Our products and solutions go far beyond the capabilities of traditional electrical equipment. We make power systems that are faster to deploy, dramatically smaller and more efficient, and capable of supporting modern, dynamic energy needs for tomorrow’s most demanding energy consumers.
Scalable in-house advanced manufacturing capability is our foundation for meeting timeline and quality expectation to serve infrastructure customers around the world.
Amperesand is led by breakthrough energy hardware development veterans and funded by top tier investors who share our vision of building a category-defining energy technology company.
With hubs in San Francisco, Reno, and Singapore, our global team is laser focused on building foundational technology to solve the most pressing problems in power infrastructure at scale.
Join us in building the power foundation of the future!
What You'll Bring
- •BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree a plus.
- •10+ years of engineering experience in test engineering, validation, or power electronics hardware development, with at least 4 years in a people-leadership role managing technical teams.
- •Strong hands-on background in test engineering for power electronics, including high-voltage, high-power conversion systems.
- •Solid understanding of PCBA schematics, hardware debug, and the use of oscilloscopes, multimeters, power analyzers, and other lab instrumentation.
- •Proven track record leading the design, build, and deployment of manufacturing test systems and product validation programs, ideally from prototype through volume production.
- •Demonstrated success running and scaling a test lab, including managing uptime, calibration, safety, and capacity.
- •Strong collaboration skills with cross-functional partners in EE design, ME design, firmware, manufacturing, and program management.
- •Track record of hiring, developing, and retaining strong technical talent; able to provide credible technical guidance to senior and staff engineers.
- •Ability to drive action grounded in first-principles thinking, with entrepreneurial ownership in a high-growth environment.
- •Willingness to travel up to 10%, including internationally.
SF Pay Range
$190,000 — $230,000 USD
Please note : This role requires working on-site 5 days a week. We do not offer hybrid or remote options.
While this role is listed for the location above, w