Firmware QA Engineer (Embedded Test Engineer) In-Office - Westlake Village, CA $80,000 - $110,000
Job Summary:
We are seeking a Firmware QA Engineer to improve reliability across an IoT-enabled cold chain logistics platform serving healthcare and pharmaceutical customers. This role is firmware-focused and hands-on - you will spend significant time running manual tests on real hardware, reproducing issues, collecting logs, and performing ship testing (pre-deployment verification) to ensure devices behave correctly before deployment. You will work closely with firmware and hardware engineering, and coordinate with backend and operations teams to validate end-to-end behavior.
Responsibilities:- Validate firmware releases on hardware against defined scope and acceptance criteria
- Execute manual regression testing across core device behaviors (power, sensors, charging, connectivity, fault recovery)
- Perform ship testing and pre-deployment verification, including device setup, configuration checks, and release readiness validation for outgoing units
- Run dedicated firmware test passes for each release (smoke, regression, and targeted suites) and report clear pass/fail results
- Validate GPS functionality and firmware behavior, including time to first fix, accuracy checks, signal loss and recovery, and low-signal edge cases
- Reproduce and triage device issues using logs and lab tools (serial logs, in-house tooling)
- Partner with firmware and hardware engineers early to clarify expected behavior, edge cases, and testability needs
- Validate connectivity behavior relevant to firmware, including pairing and stability
- Support investigation and reproduction of customer-impacting issues by capturing device evidence and helping isolate root cause boundaries
- Contribute light scripting and tooling to speed up repetitive checks (Python, shell) - automation is not the core requirement
- Communicate quality status, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to cross-functional stakeholders
Requirements:- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electrical, Computer, Software, Mechanical, or related field)
- Experience testing embedded firmware or hardware-integrated systems
- Comfortable working on-site and handling devices in a lab environment
- Strong manual testing discipline and ability to follow and improve repeatable test procedures
- Experience debugging using logs and basic tools (serial logs, Linux commands, basic network traces)
- Familiarity with firmware concepts: versioning, device state, power cycling, failure recovery, and regression testing
- Ability to write clear bug reports with steps, evidence, and impact
- Able to work effectively across firmware, hardware, backend, and operations teams
Nice to Have:- Experience validating firmware update flows (OTA or local) and confirming device version post-update
- Experience testing GPS modules and interpreting GPS-related logs (time to first fix, accuracy metrics)
- Scripting experience in Bash/Shell and/or Python for test utilities, log parsing, and repeatable validation workflows
- Experience in regulated or safety-conscious environments (healthcare, life sciences, aerospace, OEM)
