Software Engineer (HIL)

Neuralink; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Neuralink in San Francisco is hiring engineers to own the robot’s Hardware In the Loop (HIL) test system, exercising production hardware and firmware against controlled inputs to verify reliability and behavior.

You will write automated HIL tests for integration, timing, faults, and bring-up; reproduce faults and close coverage gaps, define pass/fail and coverage criteria, and wire tests into a single CI pipeline with logs, traces, and reproducible results for unattended operation.

Qualifications

• Experience with HIL, test rigs, or system-level verification on robots or similar hardware.
• Strong Rust skills and Python for test tooling.
• Experience debugging async and concurrent systems, RPC, telemetry, and timing failures.
• Ability to define pass/fail criteria and build automated test pipelines.
• Knowledge of CI pipelines and reproducible results.

Responsibilities

• Own the robot’s Hardware In the Loop (HIL) test system, exercising production hardware and firmware against controlled inputs to verify reliability and behavior.
• Write automated HIL tests for integration, timing, faults, and bring-up; reproduce faults and close coverage gaps.
• Define pass/fail, coverage, and acceptance criteria; wire tests into a single CI pipeline with logs, traces, and reproducible results.
• Enable unattended test & verification to run day and night.
• Version control and release gating for HIL tests to ensure consistent quality.

Skills

Rust

Python

HIL testing

CI pipelines

Firmware debugging

Async systems

RPC

Telemetry

Tools

Bazel

Job description

• Neuralink’s next generation surgical robot will perform brain surgery at scale, installing hundreds of tiny threads into the brain to enable brain computer communication
• You will own the robot’s Hardware In the Loop (HIL) test system
• Exercise the production surgical robot, controllers and firmware against controlled inputs, reproduce faults, and automate verification
• Your HIL will enable unattended test & verification to run day and night
• Your work will help deliver reliable surgical robots at scale, bringing Neuralink to more people
• Build and maintain robot HIL — real hardware running production software and firmware
• Write automated HIL tests for integration, timing, faults, and bring-up
• Define pass/fail, coverage, and acceptance criteria
• Wire software-in-the-loop tests, HIL tests, and hardware acceptance into one CI pipeline with logs, traces, and reproducible results
• Own release-gating tests. When a failure escapes sim or HIL, you reproduce it and close the coverage gap
• Note: The team is hiring engineers at all levels, both junior and senior. What matters most is evidence of exceptional abilities and a drive to succeed

Effective at using AI agents to accelerate work while maintaining qualityStrong Rust skills; Python for test tooling and analysis. Comfortable close to drivers, firmware, and busesExperience debugging async and concurrent systems, RPC, telemetry, and timing failures across software and firmwareExperience with HIL, test rigs, or system-level verification on robots, vehicles, or similar hardwareObsession with repeatability, edge cases, and traceabilityExperience building automated test pipelines. Bazel experience is a plus