Test Engineer

Food packaging and oven testing is more than just running tests; it often involves quick prototyping and a fair amount of creativity. In addition to executing test plans you’ll design the experiments fabricate the fixtures report results back to the team and continuously improve our growing inventory of test materials and instruments.

What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain robust lab management systems for all equipment measurement systems maintenance and calibration. 

• Drive continuous improvement through team participation project reviews and result analysis.Support new product design and quality assurance teams through test development data analysis and competitor benchmarking.

• Use robust statistical methods to interpret performance data and make formal recommendations to product teams.

• Operate a variety of cooking appliances in representative conditions and design highly detailed appliance and thermal tests with project teams.

• Conduct diverse and complex mechanical and electrical tests to ensure product conformance to internal specifications and regulatory requirements.

• Continuously review and interpret tool sensor data to ensure the accuracy of testing.

• Provide updates to management and project teams as required and prepare thorough timely accurate technical reports on tests performed using word processing database spreadsheet and statistical/graphical software.

What You’ll Bring

Required Skills

• 3–5+ years of experience with test equipment procedures and mechanical/electrical principles.

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering (electrical mechanical or similar).

• Working knowledge of test concepts in the design and development of products and components.

• Strong problem-solving instincts and the discipline to design experiments that actually answer the question.

• Excellent communication skills. You can explain results and tradeoffs clearly to engineers and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Six Sigma knowledge and/or certification.

• Basic understanding of thermal electrical and mechanical engineering.

• Electrical fabrication: soldering wiring building custom instruments.

• Data analysis and visualization using spreadsheet tools Python R or similar.

• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted tools for data analysis reporting or test scaffolding and a point of view on where they help in a lab context.

• Experience working in a connected consumer product or food-tech company.

Who You Are

• Outcome-Oriented: You judge the quality program by what customers experience not by how many documents you produced. You care about the right metrics and aren’t shy about changing them when they stop being useful.

• Cross-Functional Leader: You lead through influence as much as authority. Engineering ops CX and manufacturing partners trust you because you’re fair technical and direct.

• Hands-On: You’re comfortable on a production line in a teardown lab and in a spreadsheet. You don’t outsource your understanding of the product.

• Startup Mindset: You’re comfortable in an environment where priorities evolve and where your work has a direct visible impact on customers’ kitchens. You can build a process where it’s missing without over-building.

• Curious and Adaptive: You stay current on quality practices and tooling and you have a point of view on where AI and automation belong in a modern hardware quality program.

Location

Work out of our R&D and prototyping dream shop at The Product Manufactory (www.theproductmanufactory.com) in Urbana IL. This is an onsite role in our lab.

What We Do

We're Tovala a food-tech company completely reinventing how people eat & live. Through an innovative combination of hardware software and food creation we give our customers a way to enjoy really good good-for-you meals without sacrificing time to do the things that matter to them. We've amassed a loyal rapidly growing following in just a few years radically changing the day-to-day lives of people across the country and successfully creating a new model for the food industry.

Why Work With Us

The heart of Tovala is an ever-growing community of passionate unique culture-centric teammates from all different backgrounds and industries working together to make the magic happen. We're looking for great people to join our team of hard-working fun-loving food-focused folks who bring their full selves to work every day.

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