Senior Instrumentation Engineer

PORTFOLIOTEAM RRE Portfolio CareersIt's all about who you work with. Opportunities below to join fantastic teams. Senior Instrumentation EngineerHyperSpectralOther Engineering · Full-timeBoston, MA, USAPosted on May 28, 2026Apply nowLevel: Senior / Staff Type: Full-time, Boston (on-site, with limited travel) About HyperSpectral HyperSpectral builds Physical AI for the molecular world. We pair advanced spectral sensors with AI that reads the molecular fingerprints encoded in light, identifying pathogens, chemical contaminants, drug formulations, and material properties from the spectra they produce. Sepsis identification in 30 minutes instead of 4 days. Pharmaceutical quality control in real time instead of offline. Food contamination detection in minutes instead of 3 to 5 days. Our SpecAI platform and CortX runtime serve customers across clinical diagnostics, biopharmamanufacturing, food safety, and defense. The platform is designed for FDA-regulated medical and foodapplications and operates on SOC 2 controls. We are headquartered in the Cambridge / Boston area. We are a lean, distributed team that scales through tooling and coordination, not headcount. Every hire is expected to operate comfortably in a controlled regulated environment, work AI-first as the primary method of producing output, and partner across functions and time zones without waiting for scheduled syncs. Why This Role Matters Our platform depends on a working integrated instrument: a microfluidic sample preparation front end coupled to confocal optical readout. The Senior Instrumentation Engineer is the single hire who takes that integrated reference device from build documentation to a calibrated, validated bench unit, owns its daily operation, and drives the engineering decisions that move it toward an operational product. The role is hands-on across mechanical, microfluidic, optical, and electrical domains. The right person is deep enough in each layer to debug across them. About the Role Lead the hands-on build, integration, and operation of advanced analytical instruments that combine microfluidic sample preparation with spectroscopic detection. This role is responsible for taking an instrument from build documentation to a working, calibrated, validated bench unit, and then for owning its day-to-day operation, its long-term performance, and the engineering decisions that move it toward an operational product. The work spans mechanical, microfluidic, optical, and electrical domains. It is not a manager role and it is not a research scientist role. It is the senior engineer who actually builds, integrates, and operates the system and is deep enough in each layer to debug across them. Key Responsibilities Instrument Build and Integration • Build, calibrate, and validate integrated analytical instruments that combine microfluidic sample preparation with optical detection • Source, qualify, and integrate microfluidic components from external microfabrication vendors; transition from hand-assembled prototypes to repeatable supply • Integrate microfluidic front ends with confocal optical readout, including sample handoff geometry, alignment, focus control, and acquisition triggering Optical and Electrical Systems • Characterize and tune the optical path: laser delivery, confocal aperturing, spectral collection efficiency, and signal-to-noise behavior across the wavenumber range required by the experimental protocol • Own electrical subsystem design and maintenance for the integrated instrument: drive electronics, motion control, environmental sensors, and safety interlocks • Diagnose cross-domain failures (a fluidic anomaly that surfaces as a spectral artifact, an electrical noise source that degrades capture efficiency) by reasoning across all four engineering layers Validation and Regulated Operation • Author and maintain build SOPs, calibration procedures, performance qualification scripts, and acceptance criteria suitable for a regulated medical...