Principal Manufacturing Test Engineer
Amazon · North Reading, Massachusetts, USA ·
- Seniority
- Principal
- Category
- QA
- Experience
- 10+ years
Amazon is seeking a Principal Manufacturing Test Engineer to define and drive the test strategy across a product line scaling from prototype builds toward high-volume manufacturing. This is a senior technical leadership role — you'll own the test architecture from concept through volume, set the standards and frameworks that guide the broader test and manufacturing engineering team, and build the organizational capability to execute complex test operations at scale. You sit at the seam between validation and production — creating clarity on what gets tested, how, and why, and ensuring the test infrastructure evolves in lockstep with the product and the production system.
The ideal candidate brings 10+ years of experience designing, deploying, and scaling manufacturing test systems for complex electromechanical products — including hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, in-line functional test, and parametric data collection. You should have a track record of standing up test operations from scratch, driving multi-generational test strategy across product iterations, and influencing product architecture decisions to improve testability. This role demands strategic thinking, deep technical credibility, and the ability to align cross-functional teams — engineering, validation, software, manufacturing, and quality — around a unified test philosophy that scales.
Key job responsibilities
- Define and own the end-to-end manufacturing test strategy — what gets tested, where (in-line vs. EoL vs. sampling), and how — across build iterations from prototype through volume production. Set the multi-generational test roadmap and investment plan.
- Serve as the test voice in design trades — influence product architecture, interface design, and tolerance strategy to improve testability. Drive design-for-test (DFT) considerations upstream as a co-designer, not just a reviewer.
- Create clarity from ambiguity: establish test frameworks, standards, and decision criteria that guide the broader engineering team. Define what "ready to test" means at each build stage and own the test readiness process as part of manufacturing readiness.
- Partner with Engineering, Validation, and Quality leadership to align V&V requirements with production test capability. Translate validation intent into a production test philosophy that balances thoroughness, cycle time, and cost at scale.
- Architect the test data strategy — define schemas, traceability frameworks, pass/fail logic, and export standards designed for direct dashboard ingestion (Grafana, QuickSight, or similar). Ensure test data enables real-time production visibility, trend analysis, and closed-loop design feedback without post-processing.
- Drive the design and deployment of manufacturing test systems — electromechanical subassembly test stations, HIL rigs, in-line functional/parametric test, and end-of-line acceptance test — sized for medium-to-high throughput and architected for operator execution at rate.
- Design operator-friendly test setups that inform high-volume line requirements — intuitive UIs, clear pass/fail indicators, guided error recovery, and work instructions that enable L1 operators to execute complex test sequences reliably. Engineer the test flow to balance throughput with learning.
- Specify and procure test instrumentation — DAQ hardware, sensors, power supplies, electronic loads, motion controllers, communication interfaces (CAN, EtherCAT, SPI, UART) — making strategic build-vs-buy decisions on test hardware, fixtures, and platforms.
- Scale test solutions from single-station, engineering-attended toward multi-station, operator-run, and fully instrumented — designing modular, replicable test cells that can be deployed across lines and sites.
- Analyze test data to drive quality and design improvements at a systems level — identify trends, correlate failures to root cause, and feed actionable insights back to design, process, and quality engineering. Own the feedback loop between the test floor and the next design iteration.
- Raise the bar on hiring, develop the team's test engineering capabilities, and mentor engineers. Shape the test engineering culture — technical rigor, data discipline, and operational excellence.
The ideal candidate brings 10+ years of experience designing, deploying, and scaling manufacturing test systems for complex electromechanical products — including hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, in-line functional test, and parametric data collection. You should have a track record of standing up test operations from scratch, driving multi-generational test strategy across product iterations, and influencing product architecture decisions to improve testability. This role demands strategic thinking, deep technical credibility, and the ability to align cross-functional teams — engineering, validation, software, manufacturing, and quality — around a unified test philosophy that scales.
Key job responsibilities
- Define and own the end-to-end manufacturing test strategy — what gets tested, where (in-line vs. EoL vs. sampling), and how — across build iterations from prototype through volume production. Set the multi-generational test roadmap and investment plan.
- Serve as the test voice in design trades — influence product architecture, interface design, and tolerance strategy to improve testability. Drive design-for-test (DFT) considerations upstream as a co-designer, not just a reviewer.
- Create clarity from ambiguity: establish test frameworks, standards, and decision criteria that guide the broader engineering team. Define what "ready to test" means at each build stage and own the test readiness process as part of manufacturing readiness.
- Partner with Engineering, Validation, and Quality leadership to align V&V requirements with production test capability. Translate validation intent into a production test philosophy that balances thoroughness, cycle time, and cost at scale.
- Architect the test data strategy — define schemas, traceability frameworks, pass/fail logic, and export standards designed for direct dashboard ingestion (Grafana, QuickSight, or similar). Ensure test data enables real-time production visibility, trend analysis, and closed-loop design feedback without post-processing.
- Drive the design and deployment of manufacturing test systems — electromechanical subassembly test stations, HIL rigs, in-line functional/parametric test, and end-of-line acceptance test — sized for medium-to-high throughput and architected for operator execution at rate.
- Design operator-friendly test setups that inform high-volume line requirements — intuitive UIs, clear pass/fail indicators, guided error recovery, and work instructions that enable L1 operators to execute complex test sequences reliably. Engineer the test flow to balance throughput with learning.
- Specify and procure test instrumentation — DAQ hardware, sensors, power supplies, electronic loads, motion controllers, communication interfaces (CAN, EtherCAT, SPI, UART) — making strategic build-vs-buy decisions on test hardware, fixtures, and platforms.
- Scale test solutions from single-station, engineering-attended toward multi-station, operator-run, and fully instrumented — designing modular, replicable test cells that can be deployed across lines and sites.
- Analyze test data to drive quality and design improvements at a systems level — identify trends, correlate failures to root cause, and feed actionable insights back to design, process, and quality engineering. Own the feedback loop between the test floor and the next design iteration.
- Raise the bar on hiring, develop the team's test engineering capabilities, and mentor engineers. Shape the test engineering culture — technical rigor, data discipline, and operational excellence.