Product Quality and Release Lead

About Positron AI

Positron.ai specializes in developing custom hardware systems to accelerate AI inference. Our systems deliver step-function improvements in performance per dollar and performance per watt versus traditional GPU-centric approaches. We exist to create the world’s best AI inference systems.

About the role

• At Positron.ai, we are accelerating the deployment of AI inference systems. We are seeking a Product Quality and Release Lead to architect the transition of our technology from advanced research to high-velocity production. This role serves as the final arbiter of quality and the primary driver for operationalizing our hardware and software stack. You will lead the effort to ensure that our systems are not just high-performing, but are repeatable, shippable, and secure. This is a senior leadership position that requires a unique blend of SQA rigor, CI automation expertise, and a deep understanding of New Product Introduction (NPI) in a hardware-software co-design environment.

What you'll do

• Cross-Stack Validation: Design and execute validation plans that verify the interaction between custom ASIC/FPGA hardware, OS drivers, and AI inference software.
• System-Level Testing: Own the "Gold Suite" of tests that must pass before any product is tagged for release, focusing on both functional correctness and performance benchmarks.

• Business-Centric Quality: Ensure that the software quality of the entire product line directly aligns with customer reliability requirements and business milestones.
• Regression Management: Isolate flaky tests and maintain the integrity of "always-green" nightly runs to prevent quality regression during rapid development cycles.

• Automated Pipelines: Automate and own full stack automated CI infrastructure that triggers on commits to merge code, run unit/integration tests, and build artifacts.
• Infrastructure Orchestration: Manage scalable job systems (e.g., LSF, SLURM, or Kubernetes) to run high-throughput validation across internal and cloud-based farms.

• Operationalization: Drive the transformation of an "engineering prototype" into a "repeatable, shippable, and supportable production" system.
• Design for Supportability: Partner with hardware and software teams to ensure that production images, diagnostic tools, and telemetry are baked into the product from day one.

• Branching & Gates: Enforce current branching strategies (Git) and quality gates required to promote code from development to production branches.
• OS Image Packaging: Own the packaging and delivery of OS images and signed bitfiles, ensuring they are reproducible, artifacted, and cache-friendly.

• Hardware Security: Implement and validate Secure Boot protocols to ensure only authorized software can run on Positron hardware.
• Cryptographic Integrity: Manage the infrastructure for signed bitfiles and secure secrets management to protect our intellectual property and customer data.

Qualifications

• Industry Experience: 7+ years in a quality-focused engineering role, with a strong background in ASIC/FPGA or high-performance computing infrastructure.
• Automation Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in Python for building production-grade validation and release tooling.
• Infrastructure Skills:
• • Hands-on experience with CI/CD platforms (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins) and containerization (Docker/Podman).
  • Strong understanding of Linux internals, shell scripting (Bash/Tcl), and version control (Git).
• Security & Systems Sense:
• • Demonstrated experience with Secure Boot, identity management, and cryptographic signing processes.
  • Familiarity with OS image build systems (e.g., Yocto, Buildroot) and artifact storage.
• Educational Background: BS/MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering (or equivalent professional experience).