Field Application Engineer

About Us

Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.

Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.

About the Role

You will join the Test Bench team — the team building the software and hardware systems that automate our production line testing systems. As a Forward-Deployed Engineer, you are the product owner of the stations on the floor. Where Automation Software Engineers build the technology, you make it work in production: reliably, ergonomically, and at industrial grade.

You will own deployed test stations, drive their continuous improvement, and act as the primary feedback channel between the factory floor and the engineering team.

Responsibilities

• Station Ownership & Industrial Hardening
• Take ownership of deployed test stations and make them production-grade: mechanically robust, operator-friendly, and maintainable under real production conditions.
• Diagnose and resolve hardware, software, and integration issues at the station level; escalate to Automation Software Engineers when a software change is required, with a clear spec of what needs to change and why.
• Continuous Improvement & Operator Adoption
• Identify recurring failure modes and friction points — not just technical, but workflow and ergonomic — and work with the engineering team to implement lasting fixes.
• Build and maintain operator trust: a station that works technically but that operators avoid is not done. Your measure of success is adoption, not completion.
• R&D & Engineering Collaboration
• Translate floor observations into structured, actionable feedback for the engineering team: what operators are actually doing, what is breaking, what is slowing the line down, and why.
• Own new station bring-up on the floor: work alongside Automation Software Engineers during integration, validate that the station meets production requirements, and sign off on readiness.
• Perform hardware interventions on stations and integrate new hardware systems on the floor — sensors, cameras, instruments — getting them communicating with the existing stack.

Candidate Requirements

• -
• 2+ years of hands-on experience in a production, field deployment, or industrial environment — manufacturing or robotics background preferred.
• Comfortable with hardware: wiring, fixture work, component swaps, and basic electrical troubleshooting.
• Comfortable with 3D CAD design and mechanical integration. Experience working on control cabinets is a plus.
• Comfortable with Python and Linux: able to read logs, run diagnostic scripts, modify configurations, and debug a misbehaving system at the command line. You don’t need to be a software engineer, but you can’t be afraid of a terminal.
• Strong instinct for root cause analysis: you distinguish symptoms from causes, and you look for a second root cause when the first fix doesn’t fully solve the problem.
• Excellent communication

skills

• able to work effectively with operators on the floor and with engineers in Paris, and to translate between the two. Fluent in French and professional English
• Location and Commitments
• Contract Type: CDI
• Work Schedule: Full-time
• Availability: ASAP
• Location: On-site at our manufacturing facility (1 hour from Paris)
• We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.