Boston Dynamics seeks a highly technical Staff Software Engineer in Test, to test the Atlas Humanoid Robot. In this critical, hands-on role, you will be responsible for ensuring the reliability, safety, and performance of Atlas’s software systems, focusing heavily on metrics based system testing for reliability and performance.
A key quality to be successful in this role is the exceptional ability to context-switch and rapidly acquire technical understanding across diverse domains: from web interfaces and network protocols to robot behavior and ML model validation. If you thrive on learning fast, solving cross-functional problems, and seeing your code directly impact a groundbreaking robot, this role is for you.
Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges. For years, our awe-inspiring viral videos on YouTube have shown the world what remarkably capable robots can do. Now we are quickly becoming a recognized leader in automation solutions for industrial applications and warehouse logistics.
What You’ll Do:
- Reliability Test & Automation Design: Design, develop, and plan execution to stress-test application resilience, safety, and fault tolerance.
- Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Testing: Use physical hardware in the loop to automate testing for various application scenarios.
- Release Contribution & Reporting: Author comprehensive execution reports to validate milestone readiness and clearly communicate system stability.
- Process Improvement: Identify bottlenecks and gaps in the SQA process and testing coverage, driving continuous improvement in execution efficiency and reliability.
Required Experience:
- 6-8 years of experience in Software QA Engineering, Test Automation, or Software Development, with a history of shipping and supporting product releases.
- Proven experience in manual and automated testing of complex electromechanical systems (e.g., robotics, autonomous vehicles) including with physical hardware-in-the-loop (HIL).
- Strong proficiency in test automation with a solid base in Python, C#, or a similar language.
- Demonstrated experience with setting up software reliability testing, monitoring and analysis for robotic systems.
- Expertise in designing comprehensive test plans and executing functional, integration, and regression testing with strong manual rigor.
- Expertise in Defect Lifecycle Management using defect tracking systems (e.g., Jira) for precise defect reporting, verification, and analysis.
- Solid understanding of CI/CD practices and experience integrating and monitoring automated tests within continuous integration tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
Nice to Have Experience:
- Experience testing real-time control systems or low-latency teleoperation hardware/software.
- Familiarity with UI/UX and backend validation for complex workflow sequencing or orchestration applications.
- Operational familiarity with a Linux development environment (e.g., advanced bash/shell scripting).
- Experience with Root Cause Analysis on complex, cross-functional system failures.
We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas for this position.
The salary range for this position will be clearly stated in the job posting as required by Massachusetts law. The base pay range for this position is between $102,000 - $120,000. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting.
Boston Dynamics will never ask you to divulge your personal financial or account information as part of its recruiting process.
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Skills Required
- 6-8 years of experience in Software QA Engineering, Test Automation, or Software Development, including shipping and supporting product releases
- Manual and automated testing experience with complex electromechanical systems such as robotics or autonomous vehicles
- Experience with physical hardware-in-the-loop testing
- Strong test automation proficiency using Python, C#, or a similar programming language
- Experience setting up software reliability testing, monitoring, and analysis for robotic systems
- Experience designing test plans and executing functional, integration, and regression testing
- Experience with defect lifecycle management and defect tracking systems such as Jira
- Understanding of CI/CD practices and experience integrating and monitoring automated tests in tools such as Jenkins or GitLab CI
- Experience testing real-time control systems or low-latency teleoperation hardware/software
- Familiarity with UI/UX and backend validation for complex workflow sequencing or orchestration applications
- Operational familiarity with a Linux development environment and advanced Bash or shell scripting
- Experience performing root cause analysis on complex, cross-functional system failures
What We Do
Boston Dynamics builds advanced mobile manipulation robots with remarkable mobility, dexterity perception and agility. We use sensor-based controls and computation to unlock the potential of complex mechanisms. Our world-class development teams develop prototypes for wild new concepts, do build-test-build engineering and field testing and transform successful designs into robot products. Our goal is to change your idea of what robots can do.
