About the role
Quality Control Intern – Hardware
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Instawork is on a mission to create meaningful economic opportunities for skilled hourly professionals in communities around the globe. Our AI-powered labor marketplace helps local businesses scale, and enables global technology companies to push the frontiers of robotics and AI. Backed by world-class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and others, we're looking for exceptional talent to reimagine the way the world works.
Role Overview
The Quality Control Intern – Hardware is the checkpoint every recording rig passes through, in both directions. When rigs return from the field, you inspect their condition, run a functional check, and capture a short test recording that you review to confirm the cameras, footage, audio, and storage are all working. Before any rig goes back out, you give the final sign-off that it is field-ready.
This is a small role with an outsized impact: a rig that leaves your desk in a bad state means a Field Officer travels to a business, records for hours, and returns with unusable or missing data — a full day lost, and sometimes a burned business relationship. Your job is to make sure that never happens. Precision, consistency, and discipline are the whole game here.
What You'll Own
- Nothing goes to field without your approval; nothing comes back without your inspection and log.
- You are the last line of defense on rig quality before it reaches a business.
Key Responsibilities
1. Inbound Inspection (rigs returning from cities)
- Receive rigs and accessories (cameras, SD cards, card readers, cables, mounts) as they return from the field
- Check physical condition — damage, loose mounts, worn cables, cleanliness — and log it
- Verify all issued components are present against the checkout record; flag anything missing
2. Functional QC & Test Recording
- Power up each rig and confirm cameras open, storage is available, and the device is charged/charging correctly
- Capture a short test recording and review it: cameras correctly aligned, footage clear and stable, audio present, timestamps correct
- Confirm the SD card reads correctly, the previous session's data has been offloaded, and the card is cleared and ready for reuse
- Only mark a rig "field-ready" once every check passes
3. Outbound Approval (clearing rigs for field)
- Give the final go/no-go before a rig is handed to a Field Officer
- Ensure the rig leaves fully charged, correctly configured, and with the right accessories
- Sign off in the tracker so every field-ready rig is traceable to your check
4. Fault Handling & Escalation
- Quarantine any rig that fails QC so it cannot accidentally go to field
- Log the exact fault clearly (which component, what's wrong) and escalate hardware faults to the Hardware/IT team
- Follow up so repaired rigs are re-checked before they re-enter circulation
5. Documentation & Discipline
- Maintain clean, complete QC records in Google Sheets — every rig, every check, pass/fail, date/time, and reason
- Keep the QC and quarantine areas organized and controlled
- Follow the QC checklist exactly, every single time — no shortcuts, no assumptions
Skills & Requirements
Mandatory
- Some technical or hardware familiarity — comfortable handling phones/cameras, SD cards, cables, and basic device settings
- Basic computer knowledge; comfortable with Google Sheets
- High attention to detail and accuracy
- Discipline to follow a checklist the same way every time
Preferred
- Exposure to device QC, hardware testing, electronics, or camera/AV equipment
- Experience handling or tracking physical inventory/assets
Personal Qualities
- Meticulous and detail-obsessed — catches the small thing others miss
- Reliable and consistent under repetitive, high-volume work
- Honest — never marks something "passed" without actually checking it
- Organized, disciplined, and comfortable in a fast-paced on-site environment
Role Scale & Logistics
- On-site at the inventory hub, shift-based (6 PM to 3 AM)
- Reports to the Inventory Manager; escalates hardware faults to the Hardware/IT team
- High-responsibility, hands-on QC role — critical to keeping usable field hours high