Test Engineer

Manufacturing Test Engineer
Location: Stockport, UK
Precision Manufacturing

Role Summary:

You will design and build automated test systems that directly improve product quality and manufacturing yield for high‑volume, precision photonics products. This is a hands‑on engineering role with real impact on production efficiency and customer outcomes.

Why this role matters

Novanta's Precision Manufacturing products sit at the heart of mission‑critical applications, from medical devices to advanced manufacturing. As a Test Engineer, your work ensures galvanometers, scan heads, servo boards and subsystems perform to specification, every time, at scale. Your tests and software directly influence:

• Product reliability and consistency
• Manufacturing throughput and yield
• Data‑driven design and process improvement

What you will do:

• Design, build, document and maintain automated test equipment for production.
• Develop test software for data acquisition, simulation, control, and quality control.
• Analyse test data to drive product and test improvement.
• Debug production testers and manufacturing fixtures for galvanometers and high‑precision scan heads.
• Work closely with operators, supervisors, R&D, quality and manufacturing engineering.
• Identify and implement yield, usability and productivity improvements.
• Ensure compliance with quality, environmental and occupational safety requirements.

What you will bring

Core Experience

• Professional LabVIEW development in a production environment.
• Hands‑on design and support of automated test systems.
• Strong hardware troubleshooting and debugging capability.
• SQL database programming and maintenance.
• Data acquisition and signal processing, time and frequency domains.

Technical Breadth

• Analog and digital circuit design and analysis.
• Test instruments, signal conditioning, power electronics.
• National Instruments hardware, PXI, DAQ, RIO.
• One or more of Python, C++, C#, MATLAB, VB, .NET.
• PLCs, embedded systems and microcontrollers.
• CAD and technical documentation.

Education

• BSc in Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, Mechatronics, Robotics, Applied Physics, or related engineering discipline.

Ways of Working

• Data‑driven and practical.
• Comfortable operating independently in a fast‑paced environment.
• Clear communicator with engineers and production teams.
• Proactive about continuous improvement.

Desirable Experience:

• Experience across quality control, R&D or manufacturing engineering.
• Project leadership or informal team leadership exposure.
• Experience supporting high‑volume production testers.

Precision Manufacturing and Novanta:

The teams within Novanta's Precision Manufacturing business segment invent and produce beam steering and optical scanning solutions used globally in medical and advanced industrial systems. As part of Novanta, a NASDAQ‑listed technology group, you will work within a stable, international engineering organisation with long‑term investment in precision technology.

Interested?
If you enjoy building test systems that solve real manufacturing problems, this role is worth a conversation. Reach out to Rebecca Pelham to find out more!