Research Hardware Engineer

The Role

This is the person who makes sure the hardware exists to get the science done.

Arbor currently runs, and will be launching, several kinds of experiments in humans and animals. Hardware is a bottleneck across these efforts:

• Development of the Forest 1 ultrasound device is continuing, largely in collaboration with an external commercial partner with substantial engineering capacity. For this effort, the role is less about hands-on engineering than about understanding our experimental constraints well enough and having the engineering credibility to make sure the device gets built the way our science requires.
• Our human studies are longitudinal, and the goal is for the research to take place in participants' homes. That means developing a system that is more portable, more robust, and usable by people who aren't researchers.
• We're also building a first-of-its-kind platform combining chronic electrophysiological stimulation and recording with bidirectional ultrasound for initial use in animals. You'd work closely with the scientific team on the mechanical and electronic components: implant design, simple circuit boards, and benchtop testing.

As a nonprofit research organization, we also want to make these tools available to the broader research community. That means platforms documented, reproducible, and robust enough that collaborators can readily use them.

The work spans mechanical, electrical, and bioengineering, and we don't expect one person to do it all. What matters is knowing what's needed, knowing what you should build yourself, and knowing who to bring in for the rest. Like everyone here, you'd also end up doing things outside that description – we’re small, and roles are wide.

We're hiring at multiple levels and will calibrate scope and title to your experience. At the earlier end, you'd own the hardware work in close collaboration with the scientific team. With more experience, you'd set the engineering direction and build the team as it grows.

What You’ll Do

• Work directly with the scientists running the experiments to understand their needs and translate them into hardware requirements
• Own our side of Forest 1 development: characterize how the current device performs in our experiments, define what the next version needs, and work with the engineering partner to get it built
• Design, build, and help validate hardware for a novel platform combining bidirectional electrophysiology and ultrasound in animals, including implants, headstage interfaces, simple circuit boards, and test rigs
• Make Forest 1 portable and robust enough for use outside the clinic
• Identify what we should build in-house and what we should contract out, and manage the contractors when we do
• Prepare our platforms for use by outside groups: documentation, reproducibility, and the robustness that requires

Who We’re Looking For

The successful candidate will have:

• Depth in at least one of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or bioengineering, and enough working knowledge of the others to know what you need and who to ask
• A record of building physical things that worked: instruments, devices, rigs, or research hardware, ideally in a setting where the requirements weren’t always clear or fixed
• The credibility and judgment to work with a strong external engineering team and ensure the outcome meets our requirements
• Comfort with CAD and, ideally, simple board design
• A network you can draw on for the work we don't do ourselves
• Genuine interest in the experiments and clinical applications the hardware serves
• Directness without friction – you say what you think, ask when you don't know, and aren't looking to compete with your colleagues

Nice to have: experience with ultrasound systems or transducers; neural interfaces, electrodes, or implantable hardware; wearable or at-home medical devices; work with large animals; experience at a small company or academic lab where you built your own tooling; regulatory or safety testing experience.

You don't need a neuroscience background. You do need to want one.