Senior Software Development Engineer in Test, ML

Sony; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Wellness program

Employee discounts

Job summary

Sony Interactive Entertainment in the United States is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer in Test, ML to join the Madison team and lead quality efforts for machine learning-powered products and services.

You will partner with ML engineers, software engineers, product managers, and data partners to build scalable test automation and validation approaches for systems serving PlayStation at global scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience as an SDET, with strong experience testing backend systems.
• Proficiency in Python/Java/Scala/Go for test automation.
• Hands-on experience with API testing tools (e.g., Postman) for distributed systems.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and test execution in Jenkins or similar environments.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining automated test frameworks (pytest, JUnit, TestNG).
• Experience in working with databases for backend validation.
• Experience with cloud and container technologies (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Docker).
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog).
• Strong understanding of SDLC and agile methodologies.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive architecture-level automation solutions and scalable quality engineering practices across multiple teams and product areas.
• Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks and scripts for ML inference services and related ML platform components.
• Build and automate realistic, representative test accounts and datasets to evaluate model behavior across scenarios.
• Validate score distributions, ranking behavior, output quality, and other model signals for incoming ML models prior to release.
• Perform functional, integration, regression and API testing with RESTful APIs and microservices.
• Verify inference service scalability, latency, and reliability under production-like conditions.
• Collaborate with ML engineers and operations teams to ensure automated test coverage for new features and fixes.
• Debug and analyze test failures, model anomalies, and report defects.
• Develop best practices for scalable and maintainable test automation.
• Monitor test execution and optimize performance in test environments.

Skills

Problem solving

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Python

Java

Scala

Go

Postman

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

ArgoCD

pytest

JUnit

TestNG

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Prometheus

Grafana

Datadog

Seldon

KServe

Ray Serve

Job description

Why Sony Interactive Entertainment?

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play - it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

Sr Software Development Engineer in Test , ML Locations: Madison, WI and Waterloo, Ontario Canada

PlayStation is seeking a Sr Software Development Engineer in Test, ML to join our Madison team and lead quality efforts for machine learning-powered products and services. You will partner closely with ML engineers, software engineers, product managers, and data partners to build scalable test automation and validation approaches for systems serving PlayStation at global scale. This role is focused on building confidence in model reliability, production readiness, and behavioral consistency. Unlike traditional software backend testing, success here requires validating probabilistic systems through score distributions, cohort-level behavior, thresholds, and statistical signals, not just deterministic pass/fail assertions.

Responsibilities:

• Drive architecture-level automation solutions and scalable quality engineering practices across multiple teams and product areas.
• Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks, test scripts for ML inference services and related ML platform components using python/Java Build and automate realistic, representative test account creations and datasets to evaluate model behavior across different scenarios Validate score distributions, ranking behavior, output quality, and other model signals for incoming ML models prior to release
• Perform different types of testing, including functional, integration, regression and API testing working with RESTful APIs, microservices and databases, and non-functional performance and load testing to verify inference service scalability, latency requirements and reliability under production like conditions
• Work closely with ML engineers and ops teams to ensure that all features and bug fixes come with automated test coverage, ensuring continuous integration and deployment
• Debug and analyze test failures, model anomalies and report defects
• Drive high standards of quality for both engineering decisions and customer-facing features with optimal test and automation strategy
• Develop and implement best practices for test automation that is highly scalable and maintainable
• Monitor test execution and optimize performance in test environments
• Come up with innovative solutions to organizational problems

Required Qualifications:

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field
• Minimum 5 years of experience as an SDET, with strong experience testing backend systems.
• Proficiency in Python/Java/Scala/go for test automation.
• Hands‑on experience with API testing tools (e.g., Postman or similar) for distributed systems
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and test execution in Jenkins or similar environments such as jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, etc
• Hands‑on experience building and maintaining automated test frameworks (e.g., pytest, JUnit, TestNG, etc.)
• Experience in working with databases for backend validation.
• Experience with cloud and container technologies (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, etc.)
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, etc.) for validating service health
• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and excellent communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience testing machine learning systems, such as recommendation systems, search ranking systems, or other probabilistic ML application systems.
• Experience creating synthetic or seeded test data to simulate realistic customer/account behaviors.
• Experience evaluating model outputs using statistical techniques, distribution analysis, or scenario‑based validation, rather than deterministic assertions.
• Knowledge of data pipelines, feature stores, inference systems or model‑serving infrastructure (Seldon, KServe, Ray Serve, etc.) is a plus.
• Experience with performance and load testing tools
• Experience with Databricks or similar ML platform tooling
• Experience architecting and optimizing CI/CD pipelines, quality gates, and release validation systems using Jenkins or similar platforms.

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location. Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job‑related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts