Lead Robotics Software Quality Engineer

About the Role

At Alert Venture Foundry (AVF), we build robotics companies from the ground up. Our systems span embedded software, real-time control, cloud infrastructure, AI, and user-facing applications that operate together as a single product. Delivering reliable, safe, and predictable behavior across those systems requires more than automated testing. It requires a thoughtful approach to software quality.

We're looking for a Lead Robotics Software Quality Engineer to define how quality is measured across our software stack. You'll develop testing strategies, establish validation methodologies, determine release readiness, and help build a culture where quality is designed into the product from the beginning rather than inspected in at the end.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You'll work closely with software, controls, robotics, cloud, and UI engineers while mentoring our growing SQA team and helping shape the quality practices used across multiple robotics ventures. This job will be four days per week, onsite in North Billerica, MA.

What You’ll Do:

• Define and own the software quality strategy across embedded software, robotics systems, cloud services, AI, and web and desktop applications.
• Develop test strategies, validation plans, and release criteria based on system risk and customer impact.
• Partner with engineering teams to ensure requirements are measurable, testable, and traceable throughout development.
• Lead system-level validation across software running on physical hardware, simulations, cloud infrastructure, and user interfaces.
• Define quality metrics, communicate product readiness, and provide data-driven release recommendations.
• Guide the design of automated testing infrastructure, including simulation environments, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), and CI-integrated validation pipelines.
• Work with engineering teams to improve software architecture, observability, and overall testability.
• Investigate complex field issues, perform root cause analysis, and help drive long-term corrective actions.
• Mentor Software Quality Engineers and establish best practices for quality engineering across AVF.

What We’re Looking For:

• 6+ years of experience in software quality engineering, systems validation, or software test engineering, preferably involving hardware-integrated products, robotics, autonomous systems, or other complex distributed systems.
• Experience developing software quality strategies for products spanning multiple technologies and engineering disciplines.
• Strong understanding of software validation methodologies, including unit, integration, system, regression, performance, and acceptance testing.
• Experience defining test plans, prioritizing testing based on risk, and determining release readiness.
• Experience designing or leading automated testing infrastructure, including simulation environments, HIL/SIL testing, and CI/CD integration.
• Experience evaluating quality across distributed software systems, including embedded software, backend services, user interfaces, and cloud-connected applications.
• Strong debugging and root cause analysis skills across software and system-level behavior.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence engineering decisions across multiple teams.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

Bonus Points For:

• Experience with robotics platforms, middleware, or simulation environments (ROS2, Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MAVLink, or similar).
• Experience validating AI or machine learning systems.
• Experience testing cloud-connected distributed systems.
• Familiarity with observability platforms such as Grafana, Prometheus, ELK, or OpenTelemetry.
• Experience working in startup environments where processes are built alongside products.
• Experience mentoring engineers or helping establish software quality organizations.

Why AVF?

• Define what quality means for the next generation of robotics products.
• Build the quality strategy and validation infrastructure that supports multiple robotics ventures.
• Work across embedded software, controls, cloud, AI, and user interfaces.
• Help engineering teams ship faster by building confidence, not bureaucracy.
• Join a collaborative, high-ownership team where you'll have a direct influence on how products are built and released.

AVF is an equal opportunity employer and values diverse perspectives. If you're excited about building software quality into complex robotics systems from day one, we'd love to hear from you.