Senior AV Test Engineer

motional; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Domestic travel

Job summary

Motional recruits an experienced Senior AV Test Engineer to own end-to-end commercialization release readiness for commercial AV software builds across virtual, closed-course, and public road testing.

You will lead QA, CI/CD gate implementation, and RCA for complex failures, while mentoring teams and embedding testable safety verification early in feature architecture.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 5+ years in software QA, systems testing, or release engineering in AV/robotics.
• Experience establishing automated release gates and CI/CD verification workflows.
• Knowledge of safety standards (ISO 26262, SOTIF, UL 4600) and safety cases.

Responsibilities

• Own commercialization release candidate validation lifecycle and release readiness criteria.
• Design and enforce automated quality gates in CI/CD and testing pipelines.
• Lead validation across simulation, SIL, HIL, and on-vehicle environments.
• Mentor engineers and develop SOPs for scalable testing.
• Coordinate cross-functional release sign-off with Safety, Systems, Software, and Fleet Operations.

Skills

Linux environments

Python

Shell/Bash

C++

System testing

CI/CD

Root Cause Analysis

Test architecture

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering/ Robotics/ Electrical Computing/ CS

Tools

Applied Intuition

CARLA

IPG Carmaker

Jira

GitLab

Confluence

Job description

Mission Summary:

The Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Test Engineering team is responsible for validating the safety, functionality, and performance of self-driving technology through rigorous, system-level testing. As a Senior AV Test Engineer leading Commercialization Release, you will take primary technical ownership of end-to-end release readiness, release risk assessments, and deployment verification for commercial AV software builds and feature releases across virtual, closed-course, and public road environments.

In this role, you will act as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to influence product architecture early (Shift-Left), establish hard release quality gates in CI/CD pipelines, lead systemic Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for complex failures, and drive cross-functional sign-off governance across Software, Safety, Systems, and Fleet Operations. You will also mentor junior engineers and design formal test frameworks and SOPs that scale test operations for commercial deployment.

Essential Duties:

• Commercialization & Release Governance: Own the commercialization release candidate validation lifecycle; define, enforce, and maintain release readiness criteria, entry/exit gates, and safety verification protocols for commercial fleet deployments.


• System Integration & Commercial Bundle Validation: Own integration and validation of the commercial software release bundle-passenger displays, Uber API, command center (fleet monitoring), and associated software components-ensuring interface compatibility, end-to-end workflows, and release-candidate readiness for commercial fleet deployment.


• Quality Gate Implementation: Design, deploy, and enforce automated quality gates within CI/CD and testing pipelines to measurably prevent critical software and hardware bugs from reaching pre-production or deployment builds.


• Technical Leadership & Validation: Lead the strategy, planning, and execution of validation testing across simulation, SIL, HIL, and on-vehicle environments, with a focus on end-to-end performance across perception, planning, and control subsystems.


• Systemic RCA & Defect Prevention: Lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for complex or systemic platform failures; drive permanent architectural, code, or operational changes across cross-functional teams to prevent issue recurrence.


• Architectural Influence (Shift-Left): Serve as the Testing SME in cross-functional design reviews with Development, Systems, and Product teams, embedding testability and safety verification requirements into early feature architecture.


• Test Infrastructure & Automation: Design, build, and maintain scalable test frameworks and automation tools using Python, Shell, and scenario-based simulation platforms (e.g., Applied Intuition) to increase test coverage and reduce validation cycle times.


• Process Efficiency: Continuously identify and resolve bottlenecks in test execution, data parsing, and fault triage workflows to accelerate release velocity without compromising safety or reliability standards.


• Inter-Team Coordination & Alignment: Act as the primary technical point of contact for software release synchronization, aligning testing schedules, dependency tracking, and risk trade-offs with Safety, Systems, Software, and Fleet Operations.


• Formal Mentorship & Training: Mentor junior and mid-level test engineers; create and deliver formal training programs, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and documentation to standardize technical testing practices.


• Compliance & Traceability: Ensure testing procedures and verification evidence comply with industry safety standards (ISO 26262, ISO 21448 / SOTIF, UL 4600, ISO 9001) using Jira, GitLab, and Confluence for full traceability.


• Field Support: Support after-hours testing, urgent release deployment verification, or incident triage as required by commercial fleet operations. Travel domestically on occasion to support on-site testing and track deployments.

Qualifications:

Education:

Bachelor's degree or higher in Engineering, Robotics, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field (Master's preferred).

Experience:

5+ years of experience in software QA, systems testing, or release engineering within AV, ADAS, robotics, or safety-critical automotive systems.

Commercialization & Release Expertise:

• Proven track record leading software/systems release sign-off and defining release readiness frameworks for commercial-grade safety-critical products.


• Hands-on experience establishing automated release gates, CI/CD verification workflows, and release risk management strategies.

Technical & Domain Skills:

• Advanced proficiency in Linux environments and scripting/programming languages (Python, Bash/Shell, C++).


• Deep experience in end-to-end testing across SIL, HIL, simulation (e.g., Applied Intuition, CARLA, IPG Carmaker), and track/on-vehicle environments.


• Working knowledge of ISO 26262, ISO 21448 (SOTIF), UL 4600 and AV safety case development workflows.