MEMS Characterisation Engineer in Cambridge

We are representing a venture-backed, Cambridge-based deep-tech company building navigational-grade silicon MEMS sensors. Their focus: resonant accelerometers and gyroscopes that compete at the very top end of the global inertial sensing market. This is not commodity MEMS. This is physics-heavy, performance-obsessed, failure-analysis-driven engineering. They are scaling their R&D and New Product Development capability and need a MEMS Characterisation Engineer who can think experimentally, analyse rigorously, and operate in a fast-moving startup environment.

You will sit inside the R&D / NPD group and take ownership of characterising high-performance resonant MEMS structures during development. In blunt terms: You will break devices, measure everything, analyse deeply, and feed the data back to designers until the physics lines up with the models. If you enjoy closing the loop between simulation and reality — this is your role.

What You’ll Actually Do:

• Resonant Mode Analysis: Characterise Q-factor, frequency stability, mode coupling and parasitic effects. Identify non-ideal behaviour and explain it quantitatively. Work at the level of fundamental device physics — not surface-level metrics.
• Test & Packaging Development: Develop experimental setups to support rapid NPD cycles. Implement novel packaging approaches to enable accurate device validation. Build instrumentation workflows that can survive iteration.
• Inertial Performance Validation: Quantify bias stability, noise, drift and cross-axis sensitivity. Use specialised test systems to validate true navigational-grade performance.
• Data & Automation: Develop Python-based analysis tools for experimental datasets. Improve instrumentation control where required (Python, LabVIEW or equivalent). Turn raw data into defensible technical conclusions.
• Close the Model-to-Measurement Loop: Work directly with MEMS designers running FEA (COMSOL). Compare empirical data to simulation. Diagnose mismatch. Feed back actionable design insight.
• Environmental Characterisation: Evaluate performance across temperature, vibration and shock regimes. Understand failure mechanisms, not just outcomes.

What They’re Looking For:

• Education: Master’s or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Nanotechnology or related discipline.
• Technical Depth: Strong understanding of Design of Experiments (DOE). Experience designing and executing structured test campaigns. High-level programming capability (Python essential; LabVIEW useful). Comfortable operating precision instrumentation and interpreting complex datasets.
• Mindset: Scientific rigour in documentation. Comfortable in ambiguity — this is a startup, not a corporate lab. Able to operate independently without hand-holding. Willing to iterate quickly as device architectures evolve.

If you want a rigid corporate test role — this is not it. If you want to build world-class inertial sensors from first principles — it is.

What You’ll Gain:

• Exposure to the full product lifecycle: R&D → NPD → production.
• Direct mentorship from senior MEMS designers.
• Real influence on next-generation sensor architectures.
• Conference attendance and publication opportunities.
• Performance-based bonus, pension and benefits.
• Cambridge-based innovation environment with strong technical culture.

Who This Is Ideal For:

• An early-career engineer who wants serious technical growth fast.
• A PhD graduate who doesn’t want to stay in academia but still wants physics.
• An experimentalist who enjoys proving or disproving simulation models.
• Someone who wants to build genuinely high-performance hardware — not incremental consumer tech.

Location: Cambridge, UK – on-site role within a highly technical R&D team.

Confidentiality: This search is being conducted on a confidential basis. Full company details will be disclosed after initial discussion.