R&D Reliability/Test Engineer - Entry Level

About the role

About Formlabs:

A 3D printer is one of the most demanding machines you can build.

Lasers, optics, precision motion, thermals, airflow, materials handling, chemistry, sensing, controls, and software all have to work at micron-scale precision, for thousands of layers, with almost no tolerance for error. Making that work reliably is an extraordinary engineering problem.

That’s what we do.

At Formlabs, we’re building 3D printers that are changing the way things get made. We have the smartest minds across every engineering discipline, and the technology they’re building is deployed at more than 50,000 industry leaders worldwide, including Apple, Google, Tesla, New Balance, and NASA.

Your Impact:

The Reliability Engineering Team is the company's independent voice on product robustness, ensuring our hardware products are reliable so that Customers spend more time printing and less time troubleshooting. We architect effective testing strategies, engineer advanced electro-mechanical test rigs, and extract valuable, actionable insights from the data.

Are you a versatile and curious engineer who can see the whole system—from the smallest part to the user's workflow? Can you take complex data and turn it into a clear, compelling story? If so, join our small and agile R&D Reliability Engineering Team.

What You’ll Do:

- Develop, execute, and manage system, subsystem, and component level validation test plans to ensure products meet design and reliability requirements.

- Perform hands-on and data-driven root cause analysis (RCA) of electromechanical subsystems and field failures, utilizing common problem-solving methodologies and a "physics of failure" approach.

- Design, build, and implement automated testing equipment for subsystem characterization and reliability/environmental testing.

- Collaborate with R&D design teams throughout product development to perform risk assessments, manage continuous testing, and contribute to design reviews, influencing product design for reliability from day one.

- Analyze field failure data to identify trends, prioritize investigations based on business value, and develop clear, actionable corrective action plans (CAPAs).

Our team did the testing to ensure Form 4 would be the most reliable printer Formlabs has ever built:

- LCD & Light Engine: Developed custom rigs to simulate UV light and heat, continuously monitoring performance over thousands of hours.

- Mixer Scraper: Tested our proprietary debris detection hardware to protect the LPU from damage.

- Z-Axis: Conducted millions of cycles of accelerated lifetime testing to ensure consistent motion.

- Tank Film: Developed custom pneumatic fixtures to ensure that tank tension remained high after tens of thousands of layers.

- Cartridge & Dispense System: Optimized cartridge geometry to ensure reliable dispensing of all kinds of Formlabs materials.