User Validation Engineer in Aemstelredamme, Nederland

About Fairphone

Fairphone is more than just a company - we are a global leader in sustainable, modular electronics, on a mission to change the electronics industry from the inside out. Built on strong social and environmental values, we are a diverse and inclusive team from all walks of life creating market consumer electronics that make a real impact.

At Fairphone, you will find a supportive and safe space where everyone can be themselves, collaborate openly, and have the freedom to learn and grow - because that’s how we innovate and drive change together! 

So… are you a proactive, self-motivated team player who loves taking initiative and bringing positive energy? Do you thrive in a fast-moving start-up or scale-up environment? Are you a great communicator who values collaboration and embraces different perspectives? And most importantly, do you feel a strong connection to Fairphone’s mission and values? If you're nodding along and thinking, “Yes, that’s me!”, then check out our vacancy below! 

Please know that we acknowledge that we are living in a time where the use of AI can bring many efficiencies and support. However, we want to know the real YOU. Please try to limit the use of AI tools to generate answers to the application; we value authenticity and encourage you to use your creativity! 

• Location: Amsterdam 

• Hours: 40 hours per week

• Start: Asap

• Contract duration: The 1st 12-month employment contract with the possibility of extension to permanent 

• Deadline to apply: We review applications on a rolling basis. Please apply as soon as possible.

About your role

The User Validation Engineer serves as the primary advocate for the end user throughout the product development and market lifecycle with the goal to deliver high-quality products at launch and monitor the product experience that delight our users until the end of support of our products. 
Your focus is to bring validation forward in the NPI, validating concept designs, low-fidelity prototypes, setting dogfooding, alpha, and beta testing programs and providing user feedback to facilitate achieving quality targets. 

Key Responsibilities & Objectives

Your Key Responsibilities

• Review early hardware and software concepts alongside Product Managers to identify usability risks early during concept and pre-development stages, defining explicit experience KPIs and acceptance criteria and metrics for every gate. You will support your insights by conducting user testing on among others, non-functional mockups and software user flows to validate design assumptions early.
• Define prototype, dogfooding, alpha, beta and regression test plans and scripts that support validation during development of software updates and hardware phases (EVT, DVT, PVT). 
• Manage end-to-end beta program execution on our dedicated beta platform (including crash reporting tools), driving cohort recruitment, segmentation & tester engagement and future scale strategy. You will own prototype device distribution, samples software deployment, security protocols, and strict NDA compliance. Administer feedback collection tools, crash-reporting software, and telemetry collection systems.
• Synthesize qualitative feedback and quantitative telemetry into actionable reports for other teams and where needed you will translate your insights technical Jira. 
• Translate post-launch market insights, customer support trends, and field reports into usability investigation testing. Build feedback loop with Product Managers and QA to address UX and functionality gaps in future software updates and future products.

Your Key Objectives

• Drive development excellence and surface quality risks by establishing an early validation process and producing usability and user preference reports based on data that support product decisions at critical development milestones.
• Scale our user testing community, by nurturing an engaged and representative beta tester pool that delivers continuous, high-value field feedback on unreleased products and software updates.
• Translate usability market insights into a software and physical prototype testing strategy to analyze user experience and establish user experience quality targets for future products.

Your Skills & Experience

• 7 years experience operating in user validation, QA, UX research, or technical program management for consumer electronics (hardware and software).
• Track record of designing and running both small-scale alpha tests (20–50 internal users) and large-scale external field/beta trials (200+ participants), including administering dedicated user testing platforms (e.g., Centercode, Betabound, or proprietary tools). 
• You have some formal training in Statistics, Human-Computer Interaction, Industrial Design Engineering, Psychology, or a related field.
• Advanced experience working within Jira environments.
• Practical proficiency with research tools (e.g., UserTesting, Maze) 
• Strong understanding of how to set up an empirical study that yields statistically relevant results.
• Experience validating connected devices that rely on complex multi-layer architecture (e.g., hardware + wireless connection + mobile app.
• Deep familiarity with consumer electronics stage-gate processes (Concept, EVT, DVT, PVT, MP) and firmware deployment strategies.
• Expertise in applying early-stage testing methodologies, such as paper/3D prototype validation, bench-test scenario scripting, and low-fidelity user flows.
• You are able to work independently and as part of a team.
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• ISTQB Foundation and Usability Testing (CT-UT) stream certification is a plus
• Prior experience working directly with Asia-based design and manufacturing partners is a plus.

What Fairphone can offer you?

• The opportunity to create an impact on the electronics industry around the world.
• A diverse work environment full of international, passionate, warm-hearted team members.
• 25 paid holidays per year (based on a full-time contract) next to the other public holidays in the Netherlands. You’ll also get a day off on your birthday! Additionally, the longer you stay, the more holidays you get! 
• Daily, healthy lunch, organic FairChain coffee, and many more tasty things.
• You will join Fairphone’s collective pension scheme, and we will contribute to building your pension.
• You will receive a MacBook, Fairbuds,  and a Fairphone as working devices.
• Hybrid working model: We are remote-friendly and also contribute up to €250 toward your home office set-up.
• Public transport allowance – we fully cover your 2nd-class commute from your home to the office
• Bike allowance – We support you with a bike purchase of up to €300, and you’ll also have a yearly repair budget of up to €100! We also cover 23 cents per km for your biking distance from home to the office (or train station) and back!
• Grow with us! We encourage you to develop at Fairphone. In addition to €500 for L&D, we’ll support your career goals with coaching (Inuka), workshops, or courses that you can join with your development budget. You will get access to Udemy with unlimited courses and trainings.
• Kitchen with beautiful views to the IJ waterfront.
• There’s a gym in the building where you can build healthy habits, stay active and have fun with your colleagues, as well as a subscription to our mental & physical well-being services (Inuka & Urban Sports)