Firmware QA Engineer

Motive Workforce; Westlake Village (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Motive Workforce is seeking a Firmware QA Engineer (Embedded Test Engineer) in Westlake Village, CA. The role focuses on hands-on firmware testing for an IoT-enabled cold chain platform, validating real hardware and ensuring deployment readiness.

You will work closely with firmware and hardware teams to reproduce issues, collect logs, and validate end-to-end device behavior before release.

Responsibilities

• Validate firmware releases on hardware against defined scope and acceptance criteria
• Execute manual regression testing across core device behaviors (power, sensors, charging, connectivity, fault recovery)
• Perform ship testing and pre-deployment verification, including device setup, configuration checks, and release readiness validation for outgoing units
• Run dedicated firmware test passes for each release (smoke, regression, and targeted suites) and report clear pass/fail results
• Validate GPS functionality and firmware behavior, including time to first fix, accuracy checks, signal loss and recovery, and low-signal edge cases
• Reproduce and triage device issues using logs and lab tools (serial logs, in-house tooling)
• Partner with firmware and hardware engineers early to clarify expected behavior, edge cases, and testability needs
• Validate connectivity behavior relevant to firmware, including pairing and stability
• Support investigation and reproduction of customer-impacting issues by capturing device evidence and helping isolate root cause boundaries
• Contribute light scripting and tooling to speed up repetitive checks (Python, shell) - automation is not the core requirement
• Communicate quality status, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to cross-functional stakeholders

Job description

Firmware QA Engineer (Embedded Test Engineer) 📍 In-Office - Westlake Village, CA 💰 $80,000 - $110,000

Job Summary

We are seeking a Firmware QA Engineer to improve reliability across an IoT-enabled cold chain logistics platform serving healthcare and pharmaceutical customers. This role is firmware-focused and hands-on - you will spend significant time running manual tests on real hardware, reproducing issues, collecting logs, and performing ship testing (pre-deployment verification) to ensure devices behave correctly before deployment.

You will work closely with firmware and hardware engineering, and coordinate with backend and operations teams to validate end-to-end behavior.

Responsibilities

• Validate firmware releases on hardware against defined scope and acceptance criteria
• Execute manual regression testing across core device behaviors (power, sensors, charging, connectivity, fault recovery)
• Perform ship testing and pre-deployment verification, including device setup, configuration checks, and release readiness validation for outgoing units
• Run dedicated firmware test passes for each release (smoke, regression, and targeted suites) and report clear pass/fail results
• Validate GPS functionality and firmware behavior, including time to first fix, accuracy checks, signal loss and recovery, and low-signal edge cases
• Reproduce and triage device issues using logs and lab tools (serial logs, in-house tooling)
• Partner with firmware and hardware engineers early to clarify expected behavior, edge cases, and testability needs
• Validate connectivity behavior relevant to firmware, including pairing and stability
• Support investigation and reproduction of customer-impacting issues by capturing device evidence and helping isolate root cause boundaries
• Contribute light scripting and tooling to speed up repetitive checks (Python, shell) - automation is not the core requirement
• Communicate quality status, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to cross-functional stakeholders