Do you want to contribute to the future of sustainable milk farming and make a real impact on the hygiene and performance of our milking robots? Do you want to contribute to improve cow health?

The Lely Astronaut is an innovative automated milking system, with over 50,000 units installed worldwide. In this role, you will combine your knowledge about dairy farms and dairy cows with practical experience on the farm. You will use this to test udder health products and hoof health solutions to ensure healthy cows, and hygiene of the milking robot.

We are looking for a practical, all-round test engineer with a strong affinity for the dairy sector, someone who understands working with cows, has basic farming knowledge and understands cow care chemicals or is at least willing to learn about it.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and execute test protocols for teat dips, udder health products, (and cleaning solutions)
• Design lab-scale and field-scale experiments
• Simulate cleaning/ disinfection conditions
• Evaluate effect of cow health products or cleaning/ disinfection agents at different processes
• Perform practical field tests on farms, working directly with cows and farm staff
• Test compatibility of products with equipment and surfaces in dairy environments
• Work together with farmers and field engineers
• Keep accurate records of tests and clearly communicate these results and observations through reports and documentation
• Connect with other teams within Lely. Work together with farm management support, technical service support, hardware test engineers or product engineers.
• Run field-tests with farmers and field engineers to validate solutions on farms
• Ensure compliance with chemical safety and hygiene standards in agricultural contexts

Test environments

• Laboratory: Controlled chemical analysis, material testing
• Workshop: Equipment cleaning trials, mechanical integration
• Field (Dairy Farms): Real-world testing with cows, cow health monitoring, farmer feedback

Skills & tools

• Analytical analyses and basic data analysis skills
• Practical way of working, understanding basic hygienic standards
• Ability to conduct field tests with cows (and the Lely Astronaut milking robot).
• Observational skills to monitor cow behaviour and product effects
• Practical understanding of dairy farm operations
• Strong communication skills with farmersf to gather feedback and share findings
• Reporting & documentation (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, AI)