Senior QA Engineer, Firmware and Hardware in the Loop

Somewear Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

Focus Days

Unlimited PTO

Parental leave

Leadership access

Job summary

Somewear Labs seeks a Senior QA Engineer to own firmware quality for satellite hardware. You will stand up HIL rigs, automate regression, and become the go-to person for determining when a build is ready to ship.

This hands-on role is the first dedicated QA engineer on hardware, offering broad ownership and the chance to shape QA processes, tooling, and future growth as the Horizon program matures. Join a team solving high‑impact challenges and enabling defense, emergency response, and

Qualifications

• 5+ years in QA or test engineering for embedded firmware.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing is essential.
• Strong scripting in Python and log analysis.
• Proficient command-line skills and hardware debugging tools.
• Proven track record creating end-to-end QA strategies.

Responsibilities

• Own firmware QA end to end, including manual regression and automation.
• Design, build, and maintain HIL test rigs.
• Automate regression suites to free engineers for development.
• Write Python scripts to drive tests and collect logs.
• Correlate logs across probes and interfaces to pinpoint failures.
• Collaborate with firmware and EE teams on testability and release criteria.
• Define and own the firmware release validation gate.
• Expand coverage to Horizon product line over time.
• Build tooling to scale QA; onboard future QA hire.

Skills

HIL testing

Python scripting

Log analysis

Embedded firmware

QA ownership

Tools

SEGGER J-Link

ADB

JTAG/SWD

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Somewear's software platform and satellite-powered hardware enable commercial and government teams to maintain situational awareness during high-pressure operations, in any environment. Somewear serves a wide range of customers including helicopter paramedics, backcountry explorers, firefighters, and operators within the US Department of Defense. Our purpose is to build best-in-class solutions that keep people in touch, informed, and safe anywhere in the world.

We're looking for a Senior QA Engineer to own quality for the firmware that runs on our satellite hardware. Today our firmware and hardware teams have almost no dedicated QA support, which means our embedded engineers spend weeks running manual regression cycles instead of building. You will change that. You will stand up the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test rigs, automate the regression suites that currently eat engineering time, and become the person the firmware team relies on to know whether a build is ready to ship.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with unusually broad ownership. You will be the first dedicated QA engineer on the hardware side, so you get to define how firmware quality works here rather than inherit someone else's process.

Join us to make an impact

"Recently, the United States Air National Guard 131st Rescue Squadron successfully employed Somewear's unique ATAK integration to coordinate and monitor a civilian rescue operation 1,200 miles off the U.S. Pacific coast. The consistent communications and situational awareness across rescue personnel, medical personnel, aircrafts, and the operations center led to an efficient rescue mission that took half of the expected time to complete."

What You'll Do

• Own firmware QA end to end, covering both manual regression and automation
• Design, build, and maintain hardware-in-the-loop test rigs that exercise real devices against real firmware
• Replace manual regression cycles with automated test suites, freeing embedded engineers to stay on development
• Write scripts, primarily in Python, that drive test execution and capture logs from multiple sources
• Correlate logs across debug probes and device interfaces, including SEGGER J-Link and ADB, to isolate root cause on failures that span firmware, radio, and app layers
• Partner directly with the firmware and electrical engineering teams on testability, instrumentation, and release criteria
• Define and own the release validation gate for firmware builds
• Expand coverage over time into our Unmanned (Horizon) product line as that program matures
• Build the tooling and process that let firmware QA scale past one person, and help scope and onboard the next QA hire on hardware

Required Experience

• 5+ years in QA or test engineering, with substantial time spent testing embedded firmware on physical hardware
• Direct hardware-in-the-loop experience. This is the single most important qualification for this role
• Proficiency scripting test automation and log analysis, ideally in Python
• Fluency on the command line and with embedded debug tooling such as JTAG or SWD probes and ADB
• Track record of building automated test coverage from scratch, not only executing existing test plans
• Demonstrated ownership of a test strategy end to end, defined by you rather than handed to you
• Ability to reason independently about risk, coverage, and when a build is good enough to ship, and to hold that position under shipping pressure
• Clear written communication with engineers, product, and leadership
• Comfort working with AI coding assistants as part of your daily workflow

Nice to have

• HIL experience on unmanned systems: iron birds, flight simulation, or vehicle-in-the-loop setups
• Background at a drone, robotics, or autonomous vehicle company
• Experience with satellite communications, LoRa or mesh networking, or low-power IoT devices
• Experience with mission-critical or regulated software and hardware development
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and how hardware test stages fit into them
• Background in defense or emergency response
• Experience working with government customers
• Knowledge of ATAK or similar tactical systems

Location

This role is based in our San Francisco office, where the test rigs live and where you will sit alongside our Firmware Engineers. Chicago is a secondary option for an exceptional candidate, with the advantage of closer proximity to bare boards, production samples, and the electrical engineering team.

Growth

You are joining as the first dedicated QA engineer on the hardware side, which means the shape of this function is yours to define. As Somewear scales you will have the option to grow into leading the QA organization, to move deeper into test infrastructure and tooling, or to work directly with customers on the most technically demanding deployments.

What You'll Love About Somewear

• A competitive and equitable compensation plan. This is a full-time, salaried position that includes equity.
• Physical well-being including health, dental and vision benefits.
• Focus Days: No meetings every Monday to allow you to focus and operate at your best
• Unlimited PTO
• Flexible parental leave
• Ownership of a quality function that does not exist yet, on hardware that people depend on in emergencies
• Work with an ambitious team solving complex technical challenges
• Direct access to senior leadership and significant impact on company growth
• Opportunity to develop solutions that save lives
• An authentic investment in you as a human being and your career as a professional

Salary range

• San Francisco: $150,000 - $165,000 per year
• Chicago: $145,000 - $160,000 per year

Note: U.S. Persons ONLY. Please only apply if you meet this requirement.