Job Description & Details
This lab technician role is a foundational hardware support gig focused on keeping large-scale testing racks humming for firmware projects in San Diego. If you enjoy hands-on troubleshooting, wrangling clusters of Apple devices, and bridging the gap between hardware and test automation teams, this is a solid year-long contract. You will be knee-deep in physical setups, making sure automated tests have reliable infrastructure to execute against.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Your day-to-day will revolve around setting up, managing, and maintaining a massive hardware rack testing environment. You'll spend a lot of time physically interacting with devices, fixtures, and clusters, ensuring everything is stable for the firmware and software engineering squads. When automated tests fail or environment glitches pop up, you are the first line of defense, collaborating with the test automation team to root cause issues, streamline lab automations, and occasionally assemble custom test fixtures from scratch.
The Core Tech Stack
You need a solid mix of systems administration and scripting chops to survive here. MacOS and iOS device management is non-negotiable since you'll be dealing with Apple ecosystems heavily. On top of that, you must be comfortable automating tasks using Python, bash, and Ansible, while having a firm grasp of Linux and general computer networking to troubleshoot pesky hardware-to-software bottlenecks.
Interview Expectations
Expect the hiring team to test your practical troubleshooting methodology, likely asking you how you would diagnose a flaky device cluster that keeps dropping automated connections across multiple MacOS nodes. They want to see how you isolate hardware failures from software configurations. You'll also probably be quizzed on your scripting experience, with a focus on how you've used Ansible or Python to automate repetitive lab maintenance tasks in past roles.
Application Advice
Skip the generic resume layout and clearly highlight your hands-on lab management background right at the top. Make sure exact keywords like 'MacOS', 'iOS', 'Python', 'bash', and 'Ansible' appear prominently in your work history bullet points to easily clear the ATS filters. If you have any experience building custom test fixtures or scaling hardware environments, emphasize those projects to show you can hit the ground running.