Principal Hardware Engineer

Sniffspace is how we present breath samples to detection dogs, and it needs to go from hundreds of samples a day to thousands, from one platform to tens around the world. You will build the systems that make that leap, and lead the hardware team that builds alongside you.

The System

Our hardware spans automated sample-presentation platforms, an 8-channel canine BCI (Dogsense), and sensor-rich rigs running on Raspberry Pi, ESP32, and custom PCBs. We prototype in-house with 3D printing, CNC, and laser cutting, manage 600+ vendor parts, and run linear actuators, servo systems, vacuum, and latch mechanisms under real reliability constraints.

What You Will Do

• Take Sniffspace from hundreds of samples a day to thousands, and from one platform to tens deployed worldwide.
• Design novel systems to capture, manage, and present breath samples to detection dogs with repeatable precision.
• Own reliability across tolerances, materials, and failure modes, so platforms hold up in the field.
• Lead the hardware team, setting technical direction and raising the engineering bar.
• Drive designs from prototype through manufacturing, vendor development, and deployment.

What Success Looks Like (6 Months)

• Sniffspace throughput has climbed toward thousands of samples a day on a hardened platform.
• A repeatable build and deployment process brings new platforms online in weeks, not months.
• The hardware team ships on a predictable cadence with you setting direction.

You Are a Good Fit If

• You have built and scaled reliable robotic or industrial-grade systems from prototype to production.
• You have 5 to 7 years or more of hardware engineering, with some experience leading engineers.
• You think in tolerances, failure modes, and margins, and design for the field, not the bench.
• You move comfortably across mechanical, electronics, and firmware boundaries.
• You want to own a platform end to end rather than one subsystem.

Valuable but Not Required

• You have worked in health, space, or precision manufacturing where the margin of error is low.
• You have set up manufacturing and vendor pipelines from scratch.
• You have built systems that run autonomously in the field.

What You Will Get

• Ownership of the physical systems behind a test published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and covered in Scientific American and New Scientist.
• Hardware decisions that directly shape whether cancer gets caught early, at population scale.
• A small, interdisciplinary team spanning engineers, scientists, clinicians, and working detection dogs. The office is never boring.