System Engineer - Hardware Support at Avispa Technology
Santa Clara, CA
$52,000–$66,560
Jun 30, 2026
Santa Clara, CA
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A contract role supporting the reliability and development of nanopore sequencing and sample preparation platforms at a biotechnology company. Day-to-day work involves failure analysis, root cause investigations, and troubleshooting across hardware, software, microfluidics, and assay systems, alongside running experiments and validation protocols. Suits an early-career engineer with a relevant technical degree and hands-on experience in complex instrument or laboratory system environments.
Junior level · 1+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Bachelor's required · Contract
Pay in the description: $25–$30/hr
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $188,486 (middle half $139,113–$224,920). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
This is a 12-month W2 contract assignment (onsite, Santa Clara, CA), paying $25–$30/hr.
The role sits at the intersection of hardware engineering, laboratory operations, and bioinformatics tooling — it is not a pure software or IT occupation. SOC 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is used as the closest fit given the systems engineering and software-adjacent nature of the work; 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts) is a plausible runner-up given the cross-functional troubleshooting and system analysis focus.
JMP and R are listed together as examples of data analysis tools under the required qualifications section; they are treated as interchangeable alternatives satisfying the same statistical tooling requirement.
Python is explicitly flagged as 'preferred' in the posting and is marked accordingly.
The experience requirement of '1-2+ years' maps to a Junior seniority band despite the 'System Engineer' title, which carries no explicit level modifier.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): failure analysis, root cause analysis.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
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