Halter is a New Zealand startup that builds solar-powered smart collars for cattle enabling remote herding, virtual fencing and health monitoring.
ABOUT HALTER At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard. We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Founders Fund https://foundersfund.com, Bessemer Venture Partners https://www.bvp.com/, BOND, https://www.bondcap.com/ DCVC https://www.dcvc.com/, Blackbird https://www.blackbird.vc/, Promus Ventures https://www.promusventures.com/, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures https://www.icehouseventures.co.nz/?utm_term=icehouse%20ventures&utm_campaign=Brand+Keywords&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4064636360&hsa_cam=16902737884&hsa_grp=134004309485&hsa_ad=592971340272&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-1082530126230&hsa_kw=icehouse%20ventures&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2v-gBhC1ARIsAOQdKY0J0DepRVFDmjQlAkJPbZuQnLSA5UVzUzOXYiPxkjX-SeVa513_BhkaAr-MEALw_wcB. To find out more, visit our LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/halter-limited & Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeathalter/. ABOUT THE ROLE. As Failure Analysis Lead, you will be the person who answers the critical question: why did this fail? When a collar dies in our ongoing reliability stress screening, or a batch shows unexpected yield loss on the production line, you will be the person who opens it up, gathers the data, and finds the truth. You will work hands-on with a small team of dedicated technicians, systematically investigating failure modes, forming and testing hypotheses, and translating findings into concrete recommendations that flow back to our production and hardware design teams. Every failure contains information, and your job is to extract that information rigorously and turn it into action: changes to processes, components, test coverage, or design. The right person for this role will be deeply curious, methodical, and comfortable working in ambiguity. You will be embedded at our contract manufacturer in Thailand, whilst working closely with the Halter Production team and connected directly to hardware design engineers in New Zealand. You will be a critical link in the feedback loop that keeps our product reliable and improving. This role is based on-site at our manufacturing facility in Thailand. Candidates must be able to work in Thailand on a full-time basis. Thai nationals are strongly encouraged to apply. Regular interaction with our engineering team in New Zealand will be required, with occasional travel. WHAT YOU’LL OWN. Failure Investigation - Own the end-to-end analysis of all hardware failures from reliability testing, production line yield losses, and any other source in the factory. - Conduct structured, first-principles investigations: physical teardown, electrical measurement, data analysis, and hypothesis testing. - Work to distinguish between random defects, systematic process issues, design weaknesses, and component quality problems. - Own the failure analysis backlog: ensure every failure that requires investigation is triaged, tracked, and resolved to a conclusion. Root Cause Analysis & Documentation - Develop clear failure hypotheses and design experiments to validate or disprove them. - Document findings with precision in Notion and create structured debug processes to scale up the team of technicians. - Maintain a structured failure database that builds institutional knowledge over time. Feedback to Production & Design - Translate failure analysis findings into evidenced recommendations provided to Production Engineering, Design Engineering, Supplier Quality, or the Contract Manufacturer. - Raise issues early when failure trends suggest systemic risk, and support the escalation process where needed. Managing the Technician Team - Direct and coordinate a small team of technicians embedded at Calcomp, assigning debug tasks, maintaining quality of data collection, and developing their technical capability. - Set clear standards for how failures are handled, measured, and recorded, and maintain those standards consistently. - Build a well-organised, well-equipped failure analysis workflow at the factory. Reliability Monitoring - Monitor HASS testing and results to identify trends, outliers, and emerging failure modes. - Contribute to ongoing reliability improvement by connecting data from HASS, production yield, and field returns into a coherent picture of product health. WHO YOU ARE. Must-haves - A degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Mechatronics, or a related field, with hands-on experience in hardware failure analysis or reliability engineering. - Strong practical skills in electronics debugging and experience in investigating hardware failures systematically. - High proficiency in written and spoken English. - Strong documentation discipline. - Comfortable working independently and driving your own workload without close supervision. Strong advantage - Experience in high-volume electronics manufacturing and/or working alongside a contract manufacturer. - Familiarity with reliability testing methodologies: HASS, HALT, thermal cycling, or accelerated life testing. - Background in fields where product reliability is non-negotiable. - Experience working with internati