Job Description

Imagine guiding a submarine without GPS. Mapping mineral deposits without invasive exploration. Detecting hidden signals where satellites can’t reach.

A new generation of quantum sensing makes this possible—and you could be the one leading it into the field.

An early-stage, venture-backed startup is developing a diamond-on-chip platform that measures magnetic fields with unrivalled precision and stability. Their technology has the potential to change navigation, resource discovery, and even medical diagnostics. The mission now: turn a breakthrough prototype into a rugged, compact system ready for customer trials.

The Opportunity

As Product & Engineering Lead, you’ll take ownership of the engineering effort to deliver the company’s first deployable prototype. This is a hybrid role that combines system design, product leadership, and program execution.

Your scope will span:

• Architecture & Integration: Bring together optics, quantum devices, electronics, and embedded systems into a single robust product.

• Customer Alignment: Translate partner requirements into technical milestones, ensuring the device meets real-world operational needs.

• Prototype Delivery: Oversee builds, testing, calibration, and packaging so the system is reliable outside the lab.

• Program Leadership: Establish frameworks for planning, reporting, and risk management—scaling as the company grows.

• Team Development: Provide hands-on technical guidance while building delivery discipline across a multidisciplinary engineering group.

You’ll report directly to the CEO, with both strategic influence and day-to-day delivery responsibility.

About You

You’re someone who thrives at the intersection of science and engineering:

• 10+ years’ experience delivering complex hardware-based systems into real-world use.

• Strong grounding in systems engineering and hardware/software integration.

• History of turning prototypes into reliable products—balancing performance, manufacturability, and cost.

• Skilled at engaging customers and partners, translating requirements into achievable specifications.

• Strong communicator across disciplines—able to bridge physics, electronics, software, and product needs.

• Must hold Australian citizenship (due to defence-aligned projects).

Nice to have: exposure to photonics/optics, applied sensing, or test and measurement of advanced instrumentation; formal project/program management; inventive design contributions that made it into a shipped product.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first year, you’ll have:

• Delivered a field-testable prototype into customer environments.

• Established a clear product roadmap informed by direct feedback from pilots.

• Built a repeatable delivery process for system integration, testing, and release.

• Strengthened alignment between internal teams, external partners, and customer milestones.

Why Join

• Impact at scale: Your work will help establish a foundational sensing technology with uses from defence to healthcare.

• Ownership: Competitive salary plus meaningful equity at the ground floor of a fast-scaling company.

• Backed to succeed: Well-funded, with strong industry partnerships already in place.

• Mission-driven culture: Work alongside physicists, engineers, and entrepreneurs who value curiosity, integrity, and excellence.

This is a rare opportunity to step in as a founding technical leader, shaping both the product and the engineering culture of a company building a new category of technology. If you're interested to find out more, reach out to Thaís on thais@theonset.com.au