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 Halter is flipping the livestock world on its head. We're scaling fast across NZ, Aus, and the US, lining up multiple new international markets, and the stakes are high. We are looking for a Senior Hardware Test Engineer to be a technical cornerstone of our Test Engineering pillar within the broader Product Reliability Function. Our collar is tough and built for the beating it takes day in and day out on a farm, but it can always be tougher. We've iterated it to this point and learnt many tough lessons along the way. We need someone who can design and execute automated tests across 100's of samples, that turn assumptions into evidence; someone who brings rigour, creativity, and speed to every challenge they take on. Our devices face demanding field conditions at incredible scale. We'll be the first virtual fencing company ever with 1 million devices live, and with some customers deploying thousands of units per herd, our testing must be comprehensive, automated and traceable back to product requirements on top of accounting for every edge case to guarantee reliability. Hardware is only getting more important strategically for Halter, and you'll be right at the core, making that happen. It's a rare opportunity to accelerate your career with unique and valuable experience in a high-performance, fast-paced environment where product reliability matters most and test automation, repeatability and traceability are your tools. This role reports to our Hardware Test Engineering Manager and sits within the Product Reliability Function. You'll be the person who owns the test strategy and test infrastructure, builds the tests, builds the rigs, analyses the data, and delivers the evidence that drives confident product decisions. WHAT YOU'LL OWN Your work produces the evidence that decides whether we ship, whether we hold, and what we fix next. You'll operate with a high degree of autonomy across test design, execution, and infrastructure. Design, build, and run tests that matter: - Own and execute the test automation strategy and overarching infrastructure (likely in Python or Teststand) - Design and execute environmental, reliability, verification and validations tests across electromechanical sub-systems and full product assemblies: HALT, UV exposure, tumble, impact, thermal cycling, ingress, and more. - Own tests end-to-end: from interpreting product requirements and writing test plans through to execution, analysis, and delivering clear pass/fail evidence. - Identify gaps in requirements or test coverage and propose new methods or approaches to close them. Build and maintain test infrastructure: - Design and build bespoke test rigs, fixtures, and automation that makes testing faster, more repeatable, more reproducible and less manual. - Own, maintain and integrate environmental chambers, DAQ systems, RF systems and other equipment into the test automation infrastructure, ensuring the infrastructure is always calibrated and up to a high standard. - Continuously raise the bar on test and data throughput without compromising evidential quality or repeatability. Deliver decision-grade data: - Ensure every test produces data that is trustworthy, traceable, and actionable—not just raw numbers, but clear evidence that links back to requirements or risks that engineering leadership can rely on for go/no-go decisions. - Maintain strong test governance practices: calibration records, equipment versioning, code versioning, procedure versioning, and full traceability. - Present findings clearly to cross-functional stakeholders, turning complex results into crisp recommendations. Collaborate across engineering: - Partner closely with Reliability Engineering, Hardware Design, Firmware, and Production to ensure quality testing approaches are embedded early in the development cycle, not bolted on at the end. - Work with Reliability Engineers to translate reliability requirements and product requirements into robust, efficient and scaleable test plans. - Contribute to a culture of evidence over opinions—where "reliable" and "quality" means "proven," NOT "seems fine." WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE - Tests you design and run are repe